Dating is any social activity performed as a pair or even a chain with the objective of each assessing the other's suitability as their partner in an get together relationship or as a spouse. The word refers to the action of agreeing on a time and "date" when a pair can meet and engage in some social activity.

Legal sanction reinforces and regularizes marriages and civil unions as perceived "respectable" http://www.onlinedatingstart.com/christian-dating building-blocks of society. In the United States of America, for example, the de-criminalization of homosexual sexual relations in the Supreme Court decision, Lawrence v. Texas (2003) facilitated the mainstreaming of gay long-term relationships, and broached the possibility of the legalization of same-sex marriages in that country.