What is a family? We, as individuals, belong to a basic social unit, which is the family. In the case of Korea, a family is naturally considered to be constructed of a father, a mother, and their children. There is a general social view that cohabitation between a man and a woman without a marriage license is unnatural and immoral. And the existence of same-sex couples is still very much a hidden reality.

Nevertheless, the young generation has started to accept "living together" as a prior step to marriage. Could a couple living together without being married be recognized as a family? And how about same-sex couples?

Last July 1, Vermont, the USA, became the first state to offer gay and lesbian couples the status of marriage-like civil union. Since Vermont's homosexual couples can now be all-but-married, they virtually have many of the same rights, benefits and responsibilities of married couples. For example, Social Security services: inheritance provisions, health insurances, tax benefits, etc. Also, they are entitled to adopt and raise children as members of a family.

The legislation isn't wholly acknowledging same-sex marriage. However, its core is that gay and lesbian couples are considered as family units. Before this ruling, there had been efforts to include same-sex couples in the unit of family as a "domestic partnership."

This kind of result is related with the current social circumstances of America. Regardless of the legal status of marriage, it is the recent trend that American companies are counting couples and households, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, as family units. Three thousand companies including IBM, Ford Motors, Walt Disney and Kodak have been treating homosexual couples on the same footing with heterosexuals. And such companies are increasing.

In America, divorce and remarriage are common and are not considered unnatural, therefore the social norm of only one family by first married couples and their children has broken down long ago. At this point, those who give small or no significance to the ritual ceremony of marriage are on the rise. A couple of divorces is considered natural. You can just find another person to form an exclusive relationship with. To the majority of Americans, what's important is the exclusiveness of the present relationship they are involved in, not a lifelong commitment to one partner. Communities for homosexuals and their families such as "Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International(GLPCI)" and "Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere(COLAGE)" have also played a big part in bringing change to the existing beliefs regarding family.

This tendency is not only found in America. It has been a long time since the concept of "domestic partner" has taken root in Europe. In fact, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Netherlands have similar laws to Vermont's same-sex marriage provisions.

Last October, France became the first European nation to legalize civil solidarity pacts. The pacts entitle all forms of unmarried couples living together to a legal status, and aims to protect from them being disadvantaged in the legal and Social Security aspects. It can be said that French couples living together have been incorporated in the society as a family unit.

There was a time in Western society when unmarried couples living together were condemned as unsound. And merely 30 years ago, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder and legally restricted. However, nowadays more and more countries cannot help admitting various forms of cohabitation as family units. The concept of family is breaking down little by little in other parts of the world. How much longer will the Korean society be able to hold on to the norm of the integral family? Surely, the day of "domestic partnership" will come to Korea, too.