Nearly every same-sex couple has experienced that awkward moment on vacation. It usually comes at hotel check-in, when you find yourself on the receiving end of a quizzical or disapproving look as you explain that yes, you did intend to book just one bed for you and your “friend.”
When my partner, Brett, and I visited Jamaica several years ago, we hadn’t even gotten to the check-in point at the all-inclusive Royal Decameron Club Caribbean in Runaway Bay, when things became uncomfortable. “What about your bag?” a porter asked me in a way that didn’t sound exactly helpful after he’d pulled our single suitcase out of a van we’d taken from the airport and placed it at Brett’s feet. “I just have this,” I said, referring to my backpack and feeling my neck hairs tingle; this is Potentially Unsafe Territory, my sensors seemed to say.