It is well past time for this to change.

I have known people that have gotten married on a whim, due to pregnancy, and because their parents arranged it when they were young. So the idea that somebody in a committed relationship spanning decades cannot have the protections, and privileges, provided all of us by marriage in this country makes a joke of this phrase from out Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Of course I don't attach much credence to the "endowed by their creator" nonsense, but I am certainly down with the rest. And believe that if one of us has these rights, then ALL of us should have these rights.