Domestic partnership in the context of "Girlfriend"

Child marriage is a practice involving a marriage or domestic partnership, formal or informal, that includes an individual under 18 and an adult or other child.

Research has found that child marriages have many long-term negative consequences for child brides and grooms. Girls who marry as children often lack access to education and future career opportunities. It is also common for them to have adverse health effects resulting from early pregnancy and childbirth. Effects on child grooms may include the economic pressure of providing for a household and various constraints in educational and career opportunities. Child marriage is part of the practice of child betrothal, often including civil cohabitation and a court approval of the engagement. Some factors that encourage child marriages include poverty, bride price, dowries, cultural traditions, religious and social pressure, regional customs, fear of the child remaining unmarried into adulthood, illiteracy, and the perceived inability of women to work.

The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Synonyms with similar properties include sweetheart, other half, better half, spouse, domestic partner, lover, paramour, soulmate, and life partner.

The U.S. state of New York has generally been seen as socially liberal in regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights. LGBTQ travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". The advocacy movement for LGBTQ rights in the state has been dated as far back as 1969 during the Stonewall riots in New York City. Same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults has been legal since the New York v. Onofre case in 1980. Same-sex marriage has been legal statewide since 2011 and some cities have recognized domestic partnerships between same-sex couples since 1998. Discrimination protections in credit, housing, employment, education, and public accommodation have explicitly included sexual orientation since 2003 and gender identity or expression since 2019. Transgender people in the state legally do not have to undergo sex reassignment surgery to change their sex or gender on official documents since 2014. In addition, both conversion therapy on minors and the gay and trans panic defense have been banned since 2019. Since 2021, commercial surrogacy has been legally available within New York State. In 2024, the Constitution of New York was amended to explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation following a successful ballot measure.

On June 28, 1969, LGBTQ people rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall riots and further protests over the following nights were a watershed moment in the history of LGBTQ rights, and the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. New York City is now regarded as one of the most LGBTQ-friendly cities in the world. At Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019, tens of thousands of people marched in the NYC Pride March, with about 5 million people in attendance, constituting the world's largest LGBTQ event in history. In April 2022 following the enactment of the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a digital billboard campaign to attract Floridiansto a significantly more supportive environment for LGBTQ residents in New York City.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Oregon have the same legal rights as non-LGBTQ people. Oregon became one of the first U.S. jurisdictions to decriminalize sodomy in 1972, and same-sex marriage has been legal in the state since May 2014 when a federal judge declared the state's ban on such marriages unconstitutional. Previously, same-sex couples could only access domestic partnerships, which guaranteed most of the rights of marriage. Additionally, same-sex couples are allowed to jointly adopt, and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodations is outlawed in the state under the Oregon Equality Act, enacted in 2008. Conversion therapy on minors is also illegal.

Oregon is frequently referred to as one of the United States' most LGBTQ-friendly states, and is home to an active LGBT community with multiple bars, clubs, venues, events and other establishments. Governor Kate Brown (served 2015–2023) was the nation's first openly bisexual governor. A 2019 opinion poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute showed that 70% of Oregonians supported anti-discrimination legislation protecting LGBTQ people.

Same-sex parenting is parenting of children by same-sex couples generally consisting of homosexual, lesbian, or bisexual people who are often in civil partnerships, domestic partnerships, civil unions, or same-sex marriages.

Opponents of same-sex parenting argue that it has an adverse impact on children. However, scientific research consistently shows that lesbian and homosexual parents are as capable and fit as heterosexual parents and that children reared by lesbian and homosexual parents are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as those reared by heterosexual parents. Major professional associations of physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, pediatricians, therapists, and social workers have not identified credible empirical research that suggests otherwise.