* Same sex couples

[wendywitch2005]

I notice that in 2004 and 2005 there was some discussion about how to add same sex relationships. Did anyone ever solve this? It is not a new issue - I have accepted a commission to investigate the genealogy of a famous literary figure who had several long-term relationships in the 1920's, 1930's and 1940's, relationships which were akin to marriages. Most were with women but some with men and FH applies by default the wrong sex to men and women linked with the central character. It would seem the easiest way to overcome this would be to have a facility to leave blank the 'sex' field so that men and / or women can be linked in a marriage / significant relationship to an individual. Is that possible?

ID:1793

[SunnyLady]

I suppose given the origins of GEDCOM it is unlikely that same sex relationships will be given the same status as a relationship which produces the 'standard' family, no matter the lobbying, as it is just not the world view of LDS folk even if GEDCOM has become the standard interface between genealogy programmes.....

I see Jane suggested the use of 'associated person' - but I am not sure how that helps as I cannot immediately see how to force them into reports or diagrams  [confused]  

[Tombaston]

I know it's still a workaround, but with FH3 you can show a same sex couple on Diagrams. I suggest using the associated person as suggested by Jane in the other postings to record the relationship. Now create the Diagram for one of the partners and insert the same type of tree for the other partner into this Diagram. Turn on Box Movement and position the partners next to each other, Then insert a rectangle into the diagram as below.

Finally right click on the rectangle and select order, send to back. It now looks the same as the connecting lines for any other partnership.

You could insert two separate lines rather than a rectangle, but the advantage of using a rectangle is it keeps the two lines linked and horizontal. Two separate lines can be moved individually and it is not always easy to make them horizontal. If you want to make sure the line spacing is the same as for a different sex couple, temporarily move the rectangle level with one of the partner's parents and adjust the size until it matches then put it back with the same sex couple.

[ChrisBowyer]

Just wnated to add an oar here... the official view is that Gedcom doesn't support sme sex couples, but I was reading a (presumably unnoficial) explanation of the gedcom definition a while ago on the web (and I've spent ages looking for it since but can't remember where I found the link) which said (quoting from memory) something like '... the use of the terms Husband and Wife does not of course preclude their use for unmarried or even same sex couples...'. It is reasonable for FH to default partners to the opposite sex, but I can't see why it shouldn't be amendable given the current state of the law in many countries. Tom's bit about hacking a diagram may be useful, but the whole point surely is to manage the data so the appropriate information can be rendered as diagrams, reports, or whatever on demand.

[ChrisBowyer]

P.S.

I have one such example on my tree and I made one of them female with a record flag and a note to self to do somethng about the diagram style to make him look male if I ever need to... still comes out as She in the reports though. I suppose you could also change all the associated sentences.