MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Just four years ago, as the term civil unions was being invented, the notion of creating a legal institution parallel to marriage for gay and lesbian couples was considered radical.

Today, it’s become for many the conservative fallback position as political leaders search for a way to prevent courts from opening full marriage rights – including the ability to use the term itself – to gay and lesbian couples.

And it’s become routine in Vermont. Town clerks and justices of the peace have become as accustomed to civil unions as they have to traditional weddings. Readers of the state’s newspapers see civil union announcements alongside wedding notices almost every week.

“It’s just everyday business,” said Brattleboro Town Clerk Annette Cappy, who gained notoriety when she became the first clerk to issue a license a few minutes after midnight on July 1, 2000. Last year her office issued 185 civil union licenses and 318 marriage licenses.

Civic dialogue also has returned to normal.

Linda Weiss is a justice of the peace in Corinth, a community at the heart of the civil unions opposition movement four years ago. She said many of her conservative neighbors have let go of their anger.

“Although there’s still a fair amount of grumbling there’s much more of an attitude of, ‘Well, if that’s what they want to do, let them,’” said Weiss, who had a civil union ceremony with her partner more than three years ago.

Since then, civil unions have permeated the national dialogue about gay and lesbian rights.

Massachusetts politicians, including Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, have searched for a way to institute civil unions instead of permitting gay and lesbian couples to marry, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected the notion.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry opposes marriage equality but would support civil unions. Some have interpreted even President Bush’s comments to mean he would support civil unions, although he’s never specifically said that.

“I think President Bush actually supporting the civil union concept while rejecting marriage for same-sex couples cements civil unions as the fallback position for conservatives,” said Suzanne Goldberg, a professor at Rutgers University law school who specializes in women’s and gay and lesbian civil rights.

Vermont officials who were involved in the successful search four years ago for the political compromise short of marriage that became civil unions are amazed at the shift in political reality.

“It’s a marvel how that has happened,” said Vermont Law School Professor Greg Johnson.

“Now our ‘radical’ civil union thing is the compromise proposal for moderates,” said Attorney General William Sorrell.

And that was one of the reasons that advocates for full marriage rights were resistant four years ago to civil unions. “This is exactly the fear, that this would be the out for other states to use,” said Mary Hurlie, a justice of the peace in Hinesburg whose own civil union ceremony was one of the first in the state in 2000.

The issue caused a political backlash at the time, but now even some legislators who were voted out of office because of their support for civil unions have gotten elected again.

“I think most Vermonters have come to accept it, to live with it,” said Gov. James Douglas, a Republican who said in 2000 the Legislature was acting too quickly but who now opposes a federal constitutional amendment on marriage for gays and lesbians.

With the knowledge that polls show the public opposed to marriage equality but supportive of granting at least some benefits to gay and lesbian couples, civil unions seem a good compromise to many politicians.

What surprises many in Vermont is how quickly the notion of civil unions has caught on.

“It’s only taken these few years for the phrase to have a universal currency,” Johnson of Vermont Law School said.

It may have currency, but it does not have universal meaning, said Thomas Little, who as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee four years ago was the key architect of the law.

He’s seen and heard a lot of national leaders express opposition to marriage for same-sex couples and support for civil unions. But he notes that just because there’s only one civil union law in the country, it’s no guarantee they mean they would endorse just what it does. He’d have a question for them:

“‘It’s got all the rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities of marriage and it’s for people who are in love with each other and are the same sex. Is that what you mean and do you support that?’” he said. “I think a lot of people would answer that in the negative.”