alt text: a tweet within a tweet. "coworker asked me my pronouns and I said 'they/them but I'm at work right now so it's whatever' and then she came up to me later and said 'this is you'" (showing a tweet that says) i'm probably nonbinary but i have a job so idrc about that rn
Cishet guy here. I use the term "partner" all the time because I prefer nongendered relational terms. Plus, partner sounds a little more serious than saying "my girlfriend". We've been together 8 years but are not interested in marriage, so I feel like it's just the best word to use. It is amusing, though, when my partner isn't present and I'm talking to a stranger, that they often just assume I'm gay when I use it.
Yeah, I'm in a similar situation and "girlfriend" doesn't quite capture what we have at this point but "partner" also feels kinda vague and I'm not about to say "my romantic partner"
100% agree, "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" just sounds childish imo, I prefer the word associations of "partner" too, like you're equals