NEW YORK (AP) – Several states permit gay marriage or something like it, with rights ranging from things as basic as a hospital emergency room visit to full marital privileges, says a lawyer for Lambda Legal, a gay civil rights organization.

Only Massachusetts permits same-sex couples to marry and enjoy all of the spousal benefits to which heterosexual couples are entitled, said David Buckel, the lawyer who directs Lambda’s “Marriage Project.”

The state that offers the next best domestic situation for gay couples is Vermont, Buckel says. The state allows what it calls a “civil union” that confers “all of the responsibilities and protections of marriage – except the word ‘marriage’ itself.”

California has a “domestic partnership” law “essentially” like civil unions in Vermont, Buckel said, but lacking a few of that state’s minor benefits.

Hawaii refers to its same-sex domestic arrangement as a “reciprocal beneficial partnership.” Buckel says the statute is similar to but lacks some of the benefits found in the Vermont law.

New Jersey’s domestic partnership law, passed in July 2004, gives same-sex domestic partners eight rights that normally are available only to heterosexual couples.

Buckel says these include the right of one partner to make medical decisions for the other, the right of one partner to claim the other as a state tax deduction, and the right of partners to provide health and insurance benefits for each other.

Iowa allows same-sex couples to declare themselves in a domestic partnership and thereby allow one partner, if he or she is a state employee, to include the other in his or her health insurance coverage, Buckel said.