A question that has popped up for me many times over the past year and a half or so is how to skirt the term "boyfriend" when referring to the man I live with. I'm wildly uncomfortable with that particular adjective because it seems absolutely juvenile coming from someone who's nearly 40 years old.

I always struggle when I'm asked for a short bio to accompany things that I've written for publication. I suppose I could just sew the phrases "living in the Tampa area" and "mother of three" into some form of a sentence but acknowledging Jeff's existence in my life is important to me.

I was recently hired to author a niche blog that includes an entire page of information about me and the best I could come up with was "...living in Florida with my partner and three young sons." Someone who knows me suggested that I reconsider the term "partner" since it implies that I am gay. I responded that I know how it sounds but it doesn't concern me in the slightest if people think that to be the case. Besides, I can't think of another way to reference the most important adult relationship in my life. If the terminology can be interpreted in more than one way, so be it.

I had to laugh when I got to my desk this morning to find not one, but two, emails from readers inquring about my sexual orientation. I'm no stranger to reader interaction but such straightforwardness really surprised me. How very bizarre. "Read the blog!" I wanted to shout. "Who cares if I like men, women, anime or blow up dolls?!" I mentioned this to a friend of mine a short while ago and she suggested the possibility that some readers might be so offended by the idea of reading a site authored by a "queer" that they might not return.