You can still protect your assets by going to an attorney and signing a non marital co habitation agreement. It's a legal document that protects both of your assets.

Given that I am mostly attracted to women, and my 'preop' status, I could get married if I wished. In fact, given that I am living in Texas, it might be rather fun to walk into the Clerk of the Court's office with my partner and request a marriage licence.
At the moment, however, I don't have a partner, and none seems to be appearing over the horizon, either. Still, if it was with the right person, I think that I'd get married again.

Yes. No reason to explain why it is for me other than to someone I want to marry and shares the same sentiments about marriage.

simply put; i'm not wired for marriage.

my state just legalized it this week (55-43)

largely due to this woman's devastating story and what she did with it.

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/search?q=for+my+wife <==

yes, I hope to someday get married and have the right to be with my wife
in the ambulance, hospital or visa versa. definately and without slowing down to show anyone a flippin piece of paper.

Absolutely.

I've been married twice.
Once to the wrong person and once to the right person.

Getting married is not that big a deal ... it's finding the right person to get married to - then it's just something you can't not do.

I wouldn't rule out marriage per se but what I would rule out, from a personal perspective is a "conventional" marriage, whether straight or gay. By this comment, I mean that I never want to live 24/7 with a partner as I value time alone i.e. I could do 24/5 or something along those lines or live in separate condos in the same building or in nearby homes .... just not 24/7.

I'm certainly not alone in my thinking on this and the more"unconventional" is gradually becoming the conventional.

Understand what you are saying Clay but I don't think awesome is the right word in the context - same rights as others should be expected / normal.

I guess my thinking about a prenups is being able to protect the assets you have coming into the marriage, rather than protecting the assests you accumulate while in the marriage. This is what I would be most conscious of. Is it really fair for me to get half of the 50K of my partner's inheritance that she came into the relationship with? I say, no. Do we each deserve half of the 50K we have put into one or the other's 401K (retirement plan) while married? Yes, I think so.

I love the thought of marriage as I interpret it: A public, ceremonial, legal bond between two (or more) individuals who love and respect each other, and wish not to be parted. It seems very romantic to care for someone so much that you give them the gift of yourself, and accept the gift of themselves to you in return.

That being said, I am never going to find anyone who can put up with my ass from now until eternity, so I'm just content with the thought of it. :)

THANK YOU so much for posting this.

i haven't been through this situation with a partner, but i lost both of my parents when i was 17 and neither had a will. my step-parents took EVERYTHING - the life insurance, my parents' houses, my mother's car, all of my possessions that were still in my parents' houses. even though they had acted as though everything was fine before my parents died and made promises to my parents as to how things would be handled (spending life insurance to pay off the house so my stepdad, my older sister and her kids, and i could live there if needed; splitting the remaining life insurance to help me with medical bills and my sister with getting through school with kids; etc.). my father and i had worked on a troop carrier wwii history project together for years and my stepmother and father's family had no part of it, but they stole all of the materials we worked on together and i had no access to anything (which included a library of priceless primary source material). my extended family on both sides basically abandoned me, my sister, and my nieces right after, and we were destitute. i don't care how much you trust your family or your partners - people go fucking nuts when somebody dies. TAKE CARE OF YOUR LEGAL STUFF. write your will, put it in a trust, whatever you have to do. if you want your assets to go to your partner(s) or kids when you die, do whatever you have to do to make ABSOLUTELY certain that that will happen, because if you don't, those people (including your children) have NO RIGHTS whatsoever. this is one case where trust (even in a decades-long relationship) is NOT enough.

As long as any form of the Government has a legal foot in marriage Red and I are out. We are suppose to be guaranteed the separation of church and state. Seeing as marriage is considered to be a religious ceremony the states the feds need to back off.

it upsets me that it's either/or. there are plenty of other ways the government can provide those rights without taking such a religious, moralizing stance on who deserves to receive them and who doesn't. imho it would be better to reform the way those benefits are allotted altogether and separate them from the romantic commitment or religious aspects of marriage - i.e. provide civil unions/domestic partnership benefits to people in committed relationships regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or monogamy/nonmonogamy - then leave it up to individual churches, temples, and other religious institutions or people who perform civil ceremonies as to whether they choose to perform the ceremony for a certain couple.

I have read the opening post again and simmered down a bit.
No , I would not get married tomorrow just because I could as
I am single and would need a long ( a few years) engagement prior.

It would require a lot of thought and the right person for me of course.
I dont believe in the complete each other crap and know how much
work long term relationships can be.
If it was based in reality and not the fantasy of it , yes , I would.

I inherited a great deal of liquid assests upon my Mother's death, and even with our "legal" marriage we have a trust. You never know who or what is going to happen.

There are many people who feel the same way:bunchflowers: