Re: Once again, what's a PASSLQ.
Jim Whitehead (ejw@ics.uci.edu)
Mon, 16 Jun 1997 11:27:40 -0700
>A FoRKee writes in...
>
>> You'll have to remind me what passlq stands for... I recall
>> Adam using it for Michelle but that's about it.
>
>From http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/LOCAL/faq-adam.html#passlq
>we find out:
>
>To paraphrase William Safire, a PASSLQ is a Person of the Appropriate
>Sex Sharing Living Quarters. Safire invented the word to counter a word
>used by the U.S. census bureau for two people living together but not
>married, POSSLQ (which would be, Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing
>Living Quarters). Safire said that "POSSLQ" was an offense to the 10%
>of Americans who happen to be gay, so he suggested that the census
>bureau use PASSLQ instead in a New York Times column. I'm not sure if
>they eventually adopted it or not; I assume no, since you know how the
>government likes to do anything to keep gay people from being happy.
Of course, even this category doesn't cover all the situations, since
presumably you would want to separate people who are living together in a
committed relationship from those people who are roomates who happen to be
of the appropriate sex, but they're just roomates.
- Jim