this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
288 points (99.7% liked)

politics

26243 readers
2782 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Because the law is optional in Texas.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] BanMe@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It affects taxes, survivorship, power of attorney and healthcare proxy, property separation at divorce, all sorts of things. Common law only kicks in after 7 years and there are requirements on it, you can't just start filing that way because you feel like you want to. It's not fun hoping your SO doesn't get in a car accident, because that's the last time you might see them.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

okay that's very different to here, common law here is much earlier and it happens (at least for taxes) whether you want it to or not after that time period. although you can of course not file together, until they catch you I guess.

everything I dealt with for death and healthcare, nobody gave a shit about seeing a marriage certificate, we just put each other's names down and that was that. never had any issues. never had the talk with a lawyer about POA etc as I did not update that during the relationship.

the idea that an insurance company or something could choose to refuse to acknowledge your gay partner is scary, though. I can see why not having legal proof would be a huge risk.

[–] TipRing@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Common law marriage also can be a problem in probate. When I lived in Texas I got married specifically because we were worried about my husband's estranged family contesting our joint property if he were to pass. Or contesting our PoA in the case of medical decisions.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

yeah, I have heard that even in clearly defined wills/POAs, there's still room for contest, so this is more evidence to support