My Partner

I was reading a column in the USA Today (the preferred paper of consultants everywhere) and the author referred to his partner. My first reaction was to wish he could just call his "partner" husband. But his partner would then call him husband, and how descriptive is that?

My stream of consciousness quickly turned to Lisa and me. Husband and wife. How descriptive is that? I think it describes what we did on December 31, 1997, but partner describes what we are every day. Sounds right.