to a civil divorce for married couples.” Id. Thus, for purposes of legal benefits and responsibilities, the Vermont civil union is in many ways “treated as a marriage.” At the same time, it is clear that a Vermont civil union is not the equivalent of a marriage. The Vermont Legislature chose to create a “hybrid creature” that is something less than the full-scale legal marriage that is granted to opposite-sex couples. The legislature expressly clarified, in the civil union statute itself, that “marriage” was limited to one man and one woman. Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 15, § 1201(4). The legislative findings accompanying the Vermont statute noted that “ ‘a system of civil unions does not bestow the status of civil marriage.’ ” See Burns v. Burns, 253 Ga.App. 600, 560 S.E.2d 47, 48 (2002) (<HOLDING>) (quoting 2000 Vt. Act 91, § 1(10)); see also
holding union members state law claims for defamation against union preempted holding that a vermont civil union is not the equivalent of a marriage recognizing that basis for deportation was aliens misrepresentation about his marriage not the validity of his marriage recognizing that union members interests are adequately represented by the union holding that the law to be applied in determining the validity of  an outofstate marriage is the law of the state in which the marriage occurred