Yes, I was going to add "complicated" and maybe other options, but ultimately I decided not to but maybe I should? This was a generated question so that should answer your question.
I think though if it's of interest of people maybe I should. What do you think?
Single, married, divorced, and widowed are legal concepts that cover everything that can without being overcomplicated with a million personal preferences and 'complicated' is meaningless without every single unique person's context.
Or add a separate question about whether they feel their situation is more complicated than that without muddling clear answers on legal status.
I think collecting the stats on it first is probably a big part of why we slowly changed our laws to give them all the same rights - when we saw how many people were being affected.
I agree with you and I live in the US. I’ve been single for 20 years…but I was married before that so I’m divorced. I guess you can never be single again.
Yep, though the single option is often written as single/never married so that it's more clear. We don't have common law marriages (except a few states) so those 4 categories cover every situation, though without much detail.
I don't think so? I'm struggling to think of how it would enhance human rights. Isn't it the same as regular marriage without the trip to the local court? I always thought other countries had it as a penalty so that couples couldn't use cohabitating but not getting married as a tax loophole.
It's a human rights issue because of things like property law, adoption, next of kin rights. Sometimes people (often women) can be left financially vulnerable, especially if children are involved, if their relationship is not recognised under the law.
Couples don't get tax advantages over single people where I live either, so that part's a non issue.