#datefriend

Its always these two. Boyfriend or girlfriend. These are the terms we use for certain people in our lives. And if we use any other term, people become confused.

When you like more than one gender, its annoying to say "If I were to have a boyfriend or girlfriend...". It would be much easier to say datefriend or some other term that isn't binary.

In the popular TV show 'Arrow', there is a female couple that uses the term "my beloved". I have grown quite fond of that. It isn't one of the 'normal' terms you hear. And its amazing to have a term that describes your relationship and your love for a person in one word.

To have a girlfriend or boyfriend, you must have some connection, to want more from the relationship. To call them your beloved instead of the common boyfriend or girlfriend, I think that is beautiful and romantic.

But I could understand why some people wouldn't want to refer to their significant other as their beloved. It does carry weight. That is why we use boyfriend and girlfriend, it doesn't carry as much weight.

Getting back to my original point, we need to have other terms to use other than these two.

If you are dating someone who doesn't identify as a boy or a girl, what term do you use to communicate to other people your relationship? You could use datefriend, or datemate, or something along that line. But then you have to explain what it means and why you use.

As with a lot of labels relating to the lgbt+ community, you have to explain the labels for the rest of your life.

So not only do we need more labels for intimate relationships, we need to normalize these labels.