Just want to point out that this article says that China legalized civil custodianship in 2017, which allows another person who is unrelated to you to legally act on your behalf, which isn’t exactly a civil union but was nonetheless seen as a win for many LGBTQ couples who now could exercise some of the rights they could do if married.
The US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, two years before this. The Respect for Marriage Act passed in 2022, but this was passed largely to ensure that Obergefell v. Hodges didn’t go the way of Roe v. Wade.