Well, actually, the choices are a bit limited. Call it almost marriage.

I was living in Seattle. I'd met a guy who was the perfect fit: intellectually, physically- the whole meal deal.

Litigation was moving ahead on marriage equality. I was working hard on that. It looked promising. I was able to get a Fortune 500 company to abandon its challenge to Seattle's nondiscrimination ordinance.

Then he stopped returning calls. Then emails. Then a friend emailed me, "I've met this guy who says he knows you."

Then the Supreme Court of Washington issued one of the most hateful opinions it has ever issued on marriage equality. I hung on for another couple of years, then left the state. I doubt I'll live to see marriage equality in SC, where I now live. As in so many other things, SC will be in a race to the bottom with Mississippi and Alabama on the issue.

And, at 54, the odds of finding another partner- especially in this deeply closeted, unhappy land- are pretty much nil. But my living alone makes my mother happy, because that way she doesn't have to admit she has a gay son.

Life's good in so many other ways, but I wish I had a happy marriage story to tell like my friends in the several states where reality has prevailed.