should living together be equal to a marraige?

[SheilaT]

30. Thanks for the link.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about common-law marriage, the main one being that it actually exists in very many places. I have more than once heard someone say something to the effect of: We've been together long enough that it's a common-law marriage. To which I'll tell them, Probably not. You need to look up the common law marriage thing in your state.

If people want the protections of marriage, they need to get married. Which is why same-sex marriage needs to be allowed everywhere.

Another thing I've heard people say is: It's just a piece of paper; we love each other and we don't need it. Wrong. Without being legally married there are all sorts of protections missing. Now if you really don't want or need those protections, that's fine, but you should understand what you're foregoing.