Is anyone else irritated by the fact that it isn't socially acceptable or "normal" for a homosexual to refer to their "significant other" as a "boyfriend" or "girlfriend?"
Someday, I will be married (whether the law acknowledges it or not) and then whoever I am with (likely Roger) will be my "husband," not my "life partner" and he will become so through a "marriage," not a "civil partnership."
How can society fully accept homosexuals if they refuse even to share words with them?
Actually if you look up the definition of husband, it refers to a man in relation to his wife and since a man can't be a wife (according to definition) you run into the problem. This is also true for wife, which is a woman in relation to her husband. So by very definition a man cannot have a husband. I'm not here to talk about social acceptance or anything like that, but I will say that if we have to change the rules of society with same sex marriages, why must we rewrite the definitions of husband and wife, when a same sex marriage is DIFFERENT from a opposite sex marriage. The types of marrigages are different so how can we use the same terms for both? Its not that we don't want to share, but it's not the same, you're asking us to change the meaning of husband and wife. So it'd read, Husband - a man in relation to his wife, or husband... see how that doesn't make sense, to me anyways... This same issue trickles down to the boyfriend girlfriend term as well...
It has nothing to do with socially accepted. Homosexuals probably started to use that term because using the term boyfriend at age 50 sounds a little juvenile. I mean after age 30, even straight folk tend to drop the word boyfriend and girlfriend... And I've heard plenty of gay men and lesbians in their 20s use the term boyfriend and girlfriend...
As for the term husband, well you can take it up with the religious folk... Personally, though, calling someone my wife sounds a little ridiculous, but hey, to each his own. If you like certain words, then go for it...
good point, I dont see what the difference is, a husband would be a husband, wife would be a wife, lover would be a lover, significant other would be a significant other. maybe just because there are still so many who are against the fact, one of my BESTFRIENDS is gay, and he is amazing to hang out with (im a girl)
