The answer is so much simpler than the question. It always is, though, isn't it? The State has no business whatever having any say in anything as personal and private as the nature of the relationship between two human beings and their communities. Instead of demanding that more people gain access to this illigitimate instrument of law, I think we should abolish it all together.
You want to own a house with someone? Fine. Buy the house together and have both names on the deed. Simple, done, understood, legally unambiguous.
If I get a job that pays insurance and such like compensation, what difference does it make whether my chosen benefactor is a man, woman or goldfish? Either I rate that level of compensation or I don't. Simple as sugar.
Whatever personal reasons you may have for doing whatever you do are not a matter of public concern and, therefore, the public sector (i.e. all force of law) has nothing to say about it.
Now, this next should go without saying. In a truely free country it would go without saying. That I have to state it every time I enter into this conversation is clear evidence to me that this is so far from a free country that people don't even know wtf that means anymore.
I'm not saying abolish marriage. Far from it. It's a good and worthy institution that almost every culture on the planet has defined in some or several ways. I'm just saying that it's a private matter between a couple of people (usually, sometimes more) and their families and communities. Abolish government licensing of these personal arrangements, that's all.
