I think it's just promoting homophobia. It doesn't matter, I'll keep using those words anyway.

I will never use the word 'partner' because its far to vague.

It's just a reminder that they should learn not to assume things. Also, saying "partner" is quicker than saying "boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife" (all at once). It saves time on whatever useless tangent that teacher was going off on.

I was pressured to do some of that crap 10 years ago when I taught. The reason they have to force it on us is because it is not natural. Husband and wife is natural, partner is a word to describe a type of business not a loving relationship. It will not stop, but embolden any homophobia that exists. Because 10% of the population defines themselves as gay, we now have to strip MY words from me and use THEIRS? That just pisses me off, not makes me feel closer to my homosexual brother. It will do to gay relations what affirmative action did to race relations.

G'day Singwell, Thank you for your question. No. It is political correctness gone mad. There is no other reason why these other words can't be used as well as partner. Each of them has distinct and different meanings. It is yet another example how the NSW Government is going off the rails. Regards

The Daily Telegraph will print any stupid crap they find that'll make people shout "political correctness! Political correctness!"

I think it's pretty ridiculous and pointless, honestly. For one thing, the whole boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife word bank can apply to homosexuals as well. For every gay person I've met who's referred to their partner as a "Partner", I've met another who's referred to them as a boyfriend or a girlfriend with just the same attitude. What gender the person you're dating is doesn't have any effect on your own gender, so if you're a man and married to or dating another man, you're still that person's Boyfriend/Husband, etc. If anything, I think pushing the use of "Partner" when you'd normally be using a gender-specific word is not only pointless, but could actually serve to pronounce the percieved difference between gay and straight people even more by making both roles in a relationship unisex, which, if anything, only makes it that much easier for society as a whole to hang onto the idea that a relationship having two male or two female people in it just somehow does not compute. The goal in combatting homophobia shouldn't be pushing everyone to change their vocabulary to fit into acccepting alternative lifestyles, it should be trying to get people to a point where they're comfortable enough with the idea of homosexuality to use more standard, everyday words like boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, as if homosexual couples are exactly what they are... Perfectly normal and okay.