Have an aunt who has only ever lived with women. I was always told it was her roommate. Everyone refers to her as a roommate. They BOUGHT THE HOUSE TOGETHER. Have dogs together. Raise the other ones kids together.
When I was like 17, and openly gay, I straight up asked my grandmother if her sister was a lesbian. She said no they're just roommates and got super specific about it. I asked my aunt a couple weeks later when I saw her and she went "Well, yeah. Do I not wear enough flannel?"
You don't understand what being gay meant just 3-decades ago. FFS, Freddie Mercury, Elton John and Rob Halford weren't talked of as gay, how insulting! They were flamboyant, light in the loafers, confirmed bachelors, all those euphemisms. We had 100 ways to say gay, without directly pointing fingers and saying "homosexual".
What we have here is a "Boston marriage".