Civil unions are not separate but equal—they are separate and unequal. And our society has tried  separate before.

民事结合不是独立的，而是平等的-它们是分开的和不平等的。我们的社会曾经尝试分开过。

(1)separate adj.分开的;单独的;独立的

Each villa has a separate sitting-room. 

每栋别墅都有一间独立的起居室。

They are now making plans to form their own separate party. 

他们如今正计划组建自己的独立政党。

(2)separate adj.不同的;各别的

Use separate chopping boards for raw meats, cooked meats, vegetables and salads.

切生肉、熟肉、蔬菜和拌色拉的青菜时要使用不同的切菜板。

Men and women have separate exercise rooms. 

男女有各自的健身房。

维基百科civil union

A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant most or all of the rights of marriage except the title itself. Around the world, developed democracies began establishing civil unions in the late 1990s, often developing them from less formal domestic partnerships, which grant only some of the rights of marriage. In the majority of countries that established these unions in laws, they have since been either supplemented or replaced by same-sex marriage. Civil unions are viewed by LGBT rights campaigners as a "first step" towards establishing same-sex marriage, as civil unions are viewed by supporters of LGBT rights as a "separate but equal" or "second class" status. While civil unions are often established for both opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples, in a number of countries they are available to same-sex couples only.

Beginning with Denmark in 1989, civil unions under one name or another have been established by law in several, mostly developed, countries in order to provide legal recognition of relationships formed by unmarried same-sex couples and to afford them rights, benefits, tax breaks, and responsibilities similar or identical to those of legally married couples. In Brazil, civil unions were first created for opposite-sex couples in 2002, and then expanded to include same-sex couples through a supreme court ruling in 2011.

Many jurisdictions with civil unions recognize foreign unions if those are essentially equivalent to their own; for example, the United Kingdom lists equivalent unions in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 Schedule 20. The marriages of same-sex couples performed abroad may be recognized as civil unions in jurisdictions that only have the latter.

百度百科 民事结合

民事结合(civil union，又称公民结合或民众结合），是用于表达类似婚姻这种民事状态的术语之一，通常它的目的是为同性恋伴侣提供与异性恋伴侣相同的权利。它也可以用来表示不希望进入法定婚姻，而更希望处于一种类似于普通法婚姻（common-law marriage）的结合的异性恋者结合。