While opposite-sex couples form long-term bonds similar to marriage, the same is true of life during the rest of the month. All barasts would consider themselves bisexual by the gliksin definition; they form same-sex bonds while two are not one. Thus each adult who so chooses, no matter their gender, has a "man-mate" and a "woman-mate"; one for procreation and the genetic family basis, the other for companionship and a family unit base when their opposite-sex partner is not present. The larger, intertwined family networks that result add cohesion to barast society.