According to the Pocono Record:

"Will gay couples in Pa. seek civil unions in N.J.?

Liz Bradbury's partner of 19 years, Patricia Sullivan, was injured in a traffic accident. She followed the ambulance to the emergency room. Doctors didn't know if Sullivan was going to live.

Bradbury wanted to be in the hospital room, but a nurse stopped her because she was not family. "You have to let me in the room!" she argued. It was one of several similar conversations she would have that day.

Fortunately, Bradbury keeps a power-of-attorney paper in her pocket just in case. With the paper she was able to gain access to the room. But she says if it had been her husband, nobody would have questioned her.

Bradbury kept watch over Sullivan in the hospital that night, all the while "scared some anti-gay person would tell me to leave."

In some states, power of attorney would not have been enough to get into the room. The couple avoids those states."

Having to "avoid" states that aren't friendly to civil unions, and or basic legal documents defining powers of attorney, is not an acceptable solution.  In fact, nothing could be more unacceptable!  Why should I have to curtail the states I visit in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, "one nation" under God or otherwise?!  I am a tax paying, law abiding American citizen, and my rights shouldn't be infringed on just because of my partner's gender.  Laws in this nation are to be ignorant of class, creed, color, and any other subcategory.  Laws in America are to be administered equally to all citizens.  In America membership has it's privileges, and as a member they are mine to claim!

And this is not an issue that will be simply solved at the state level.  Even now according to the article some couples who live in PA but work in NJ are getting partner benefits from the NJ employer for their PA lover.  This will surely cloud the waters of boarders.  And as I am a resident of PA, a state that recently tried to enact one of those hideous anti-marriage equality laws; you know the one..."nothing that resembles marriage or attempts to recreate it's protections will be legal"...That kind?!  Well, if ever there was something that will force a backlash with the wingnuts, this kind of loophole in the system is just the thing.

That is why I say that all discussions of marriage equality at the state level are just bullshit distractions.  They aren't progress, they're pacifiers.  Distractions designed to take the pressure off the federal legislature, and push the "tough" decision to the state.  It's easy to pass the buck, it's scary for them to stand up and do the only thing that they know is right and are afraid Americans will see as wrong.  Federal legislators are terrified of the backlash from the vocal minority if they grant legal equality to all Americans, so they pass the buck and the states take the heat.

It makes no sense to me!

The federal government grants the legal protections of your state issues marriage license.  Sure, each state may have a few special things it will do for a married couple, but it's not the 1,138+ protections and rights that are documented as conferred by the federal government upon the execution of a marriage license.  This is the federal ball of wax, and if the states were doing their jobs they would kick this ball back into their court where it surely belongs.

The time for state level discussions, fights, and rhetorical hat tricks is over.  It is time that the Congress got it's act together and while they are busy overturning the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" bullshit of the Clinton era, they should start working towards marriage equality for all Americans.  They can start by explaining to America that marriage is a legal construct decorated by an optional discretionary religious ceremony.  You get married without a church, but you can't go to the church for a wedding without a licence; that's just a party.