NJ Approves Civil Unions

In an attempt to satisfy the recent New Jersy Supreme Court ruling that gays and lesbians must have the same rights as heterosexual married couples, the NJ legislature has approved a "civil union" law that is supposed to provide the same rights as married couples, but with a different name. Given the overewhelming opposition to "gay marriage," can gays and lesbians achieve equal marriage rights with "civil unions"? It makes political sense to give up the loosing "marriage" battle and work for civil unions, but it just doesn't seem very progressive to work hard to create a "separate but equal" instution for gays and lesbians that my fail to withstand judicial scrutiny in the hopefully near future.