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Gay rights activists want to replace the term "civil union" with "marriage" in New Hampshire’s 1-year-old civil union law.

Rep. Jim Splaine -- a Portsmouth Democrat -- has filed a bill to make the change, which he says would confer a level of dignity and acceptance on gay couples that civil unions do not. He argues that marriage is a civil contract validated by the state, not by churches as religious institutions.

Other bills on the issue would ban gay civil unions and marriages, allow heterosexuals to enter into civil unions and bar New Hampshire from recognizing gay marriages performed in other states as civil unions.

New Hampshire’s law gives couples in civil unions the same rights and responsibilities as married couples in all aspects but name, but that promise, though largely untested, has clear limits. Gay couples taking advantage of the law acquire substantial new state protections ranging from important health benefits to the ability to inherit without a will. But they are treated legally as unmarried adults in most states.