What are some alternatives offered by gay rights groups to legal marriage?

What are some alternatives offered by gay rights groups to legal marriage?

The gay rights movement is uniform in it's belief that the only way to deal with the issue of same sex couples is to bring about marriage equality and to end discrimination by our government against same sex couples with regards to marriage laws. That being said, until we reach a point where we can end that discrimination, there's definitely the need for same sex couples to have rights and benefits to protect their families. So, gay rights groups who've advocated for domestic partnership and civil unions at the same time were also advocating for marriage equality, knowing that gay people may have to go through this interim step until they can have full equality through marriage laws.