Basically just something people say that indicates a position indirectly, like how seperatists from a given region might always say they’re from [region] and not [country] or how trump supporters call AI “SI” now.

  • pHr34kY@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    The first time a friend referred to me wife as my “partner”, I questioned his choice of words because he was well aware that I’m not gay.

    Like, I would still just carry on in convo, but if I hear “partner”, I make a mental note that they’re gay. The correlation has close to a 100% hit rate.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Same. You’re getting downvoted because lemmy cannot allow for regional language distinctions. Not even different countries, regions. It’s a big world.

      No one where I’m at would refer to a married couple as partners. Nothing wrong with that, but it usually connotes a gay relationship.

    • BreadOven@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      I know many (myself included) who are in heterosexual relationships and say partner due to not being married. It’s a pretty common thing…

    • WesternInfidels@feddit.online
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      12 hours ago

      Online, at least, I’ve probably heard more hetero people than gay people use “partner.” In some cases they were in fact perfectly conventionally full-blown married, they just weren’t interested in sharing any more details than they had to to tell whatever story they were telling, because that detail wasn’t important for the story.

      • pHr34kY@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        That checks out. You’d use the term to be deliberately vague. Online, you’d be giving away your gender and marital status to the scraperbots. In person, a vague response lands differently. Particularly when speaking one-on-one.

    • zoloftt@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      You know what’s funny about that? A lot of my hetero friends also say partner.

      I started using it because it removes the baggage that gendered terms carry. My wife is my best friend. I like to do everything with her. We split chores pretty evenly.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        A lot of my hetero friends also say partner…

        …in my region of English speakers.

      • mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca
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        8 hours ago

        yeah we started using it because we were past dating, but not married. it seemed appropriate.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Yet another use case! Not sure I’ve heard it that way in my area, not much anyway. Even us old folks say “girlfriend”/“boyfriend” if unmarried.

    • BurgerBaron@quokk.au
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      23 hours ago

      Hetero people who don’t believe in marriage and/or don’t like husband/wife titles sometimes use titles like partner too because girlfriend/boyfriend doesn’t sound serious enough I guess. Common amongst my social circle but I get why it’s usually a dog whistle.