Well, it's not equality, but it's a big step, nonetheless, in Rhode Island, where Senate lawmakers Wednesday evening approved civil unions for gay couples. The bill, which already passed in the House of Representatives and which the state governor, Lincoln D. Chafee, said he would sign, grants gay and lesbian couples most, but not all, of the rights and benefits afforded to Rhode Island's straight married couples. Yes, a compromise, orchestrated in spring 2011 after Gordon D. Fox, the openly gay speaker of the Democratic-controlled House, revealed he did not have enough votes to pass a true equality bill on marriage.

It's not that bad a thing to happen, especially if you consider the tortuous paths that marriage equality has taken throughout the places in the world where it is now legal. Just this past Monday in Brazil, for example, in a landmark decision, a Sao Paulo state judge ruled that two men were allowed to convert their civil union into a full marriage, thus allowing for the first official gay marriage in the country of over 190 million people. A different country with different laws, but Brazil did finally welcome equal protection under the law despite some monumental obstacles. Today, the glass is half full.