Same-sex Partners | featured news

Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle are in love and want to tie the knot - but they don't want to get married. The 26-year-old Londoners think they should be allowed to have a civil partnership, a form of legal union available in Britain only to same-sex couples.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle said Tuesday night that she has vetoed a civil unions bill that would give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. The state's House of Representatives passed the bill in April.

Same-sex partners must get the same privileges granted heterosexual couples in hospitals that get Medicare or Medicaid funds, he says in a memo.

President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples.

President Obama will sign a memorandum Wednesday granting health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees, two senior administration officials said.