(Boyfriend, not husband, but since we live together, he really is a spousal equivalent.)

OK, now my English as a second language shows. Isn't a long time boyfriend with whom you live it is the equivalent of a spouse? Not in the Husband/Wife meaning, but in the legal and emotional sense of the word?

Also, other stuff I'm confused about. Jury duty? All this talk? It's alien language to me. Wikipedia tells me that since Israel was one of the colonies, and the British Crown abrogated the jury duty in the colonies, we don't have one.

Isn't a long time boyfriend with whom you live it is the equivalent of a spouse? Not in the Husband/Wife meaning, but in the legal and emotional sense of the word?

I think after seven years, it's common-law marriage or something? But my co-worker refers to her boyfriend whom she lives with but has not married as her "partner." Which made me think she was a lesbian at first.

Isn't a long time boyfriend with whom you live it is the equivalent of a spouse? Not in the Husband/Wife meaning, but in the legal and emotional sense of the word?

I think after seven years, it's common-law marriage or something?

That sounds right. Though we haven't been together that long.

my co-worker refers to her boyfriend whom she lives with but has not married as her "partner."

I do that on forms that want a phone number for emergency contact, and they want to know the relationship of the person. "Boyfriend" sounds too junior-high, so I've defaulted to "Partner." But in person I introduce him as my boyfriend.

In a number of ways, you're counted as 'common-law spouses' from the moment you live together here. This causes The Girl and I no end of problems, as we don't want to merge our finances until we're married. There are a few ways that the seven-year rule still counts, like co-ownership of property, but other things kick in early. I presume this is solely to save the government money.

I think common-law marriage is a state-by-state thing. After I'd been living with the same guy for about seven years, it occurred to me (with horror) that we might actually be married, so I checked. To my relief, Tennessee does not have common-law marriage. Or at least, it didn't circa 1991.

"Partner" is very confusing when used by straights. I get why it's used (more serious/adult than boyfriend/girlfriend), but I always think the person is telling me he/she is gay. The straight friend use of "girlfriend" is similarly confusing.

Yeah, I get confused by the "girlfriend" thing too.

but I always think the person is telling me he/she is gay.

I do wonder if whoever reads it thinks I'm gay (though The Boy's name is unequivocally a man's name), or thinks that he's my business partner or something.

I think after seven years, it's common-law marriage or something?

Not quite -- in the US version of the thing, there are a few states that allow marriage by declaring yourselves to be married (as opposed to getting a license from the gummint); this can include either doing a thing in front of witnesses or living/presenting yourselves as if married. This all goes back to English law before the marriage law reforms of the 1750s*, and so only exists in states that adopted their local laws way back then: definitely Pennsylvania, maybe New Hampshire and a few other legal oddballs? In none of those places is there an automatic "you're hitched if you live together for xxyy years"** without intention to marry, and in the places where it does exist, the rules vary widely.

* also crucially important in racy Regency-era abduction plots! Or any time you see people running off to Gretna Green!

** but boy did we scare ourselves in high school with the idea that you might end up ACCIDENTALLY OMG MARRIED

(IANAL, just freaky-researchy and easily amused.)

When my mother was not yet married to her now-husband, I was stumped as what to call him. He was in his 60s and rather portly and serious-looking - not a boyfriend. He had a partner - a partner in his dentistry office. I sometimes went with "gentleman friend."