I just saw someone else post asking why someone would want to get married, so I’m curious to see the opposite. Within the U.S., you can pretty much marry whoever you want as long as they are of age, and many legal benefits come with that. I personally know a couple who have been together for 20 years, and we live in a state that doesn’t recognize common-law marriage, so they are now considering it. Are there other situations where it simply makes sense to not get married?
I’ve been with my partner for a decade. I want to get married, she doesn’t. She was married for 8 years in her prior relationship. She doesn’t want government involved in our love life and doesn’t like the thought of being a wife or having a husband. Both of those titles come with the stigma of a power dynamic that borders on ownership to her. She tells me the main reason she got married the first time was to change her surname, which she never felt connected to (parents divorced at young age, estranged from father since then).
I assume at some point we’ll be forced to be married due to some legal restriction that would be lifted by such paperwork existing.