Unpopular opinion: straight people using “partner” to refer to their SO actually helps normalize the term so that lgbt folx can use it without automatically outing themselves to strangers. It also helps other straight ppl get comfortable with the fact that strangers aren’t entitled to information about other people’s gender or sexuality.
Give op their hard-earned notes
So my boyfriend uses “partner”.
He’s straight, I’m not. And when I asked him why he used it, his answer was simple “I like it better than girlfriend. It’s more significant. It’s what you are to me: a partner.”
Now, I’m queer. And until him, I had never considered using “partner” for my s/o because I was concerned it was this mild but explicit way of outing yourself to people. But realizing that it could just be another term, ordinary if not a little romantic, to describe the person you love— well suddenly it didn’t feel like such a big fucking deal anymore.
Normalizing a term like this doesn’t “steal” it from queer people. It makes it less of an outlier, less of a threat, and in my personal experience, more significant for the two of you.
