Case #14

He's Not My Friend, He's My Partner

I know to some this might just feel like a small thing, but I have a doctor who refuses to say the word 'boyfriend' or 'partner'. We have been together for seven years and yet he's not seen as anything more as a friend to my GP.

He doesn't always come up in conversation, but when he does my GP always says things like "and are you still living with your friend?" I just don't think straight people are treated this way and it totally delegitimizes my relationship as lesser than a hetero one.

I don't know why he finds it so hard to just say boyfriend, I'm sure he'd manage to say it to a cis woman, I'd even accept partner which doesn't even need to have a gender.

It's these small things that I don't think straight people realise happen time and time again.