Within the birth community, everyone calls everyone else "partner." It pisses me off so much. I've got a fuckin' vow, I've got a mortgage, I've got insurance cards in common, I've got a kid, and I'm a "partner." No, fuck you. I'm a husband. But we can't say "husband" because that's exclusionary to lesbian couples. Who shouldn't be called out as "lesbian" because they might not be romantically involved. So. In order that the least-connected among us not be offended, we must denigrate the most-connected. I've been married since 2009. Whenever I do repairs or improvements for the benefit of my spouse I ask if it earned me "boyfriend points." Because as a husband, I fuckin' oughtta do that shit but it's still nice getting an "attaboy" every now and then.