Second US city officially recognises polyamory

A second city in Massachusetts has changed the legal definition of family to recognise ‘polyamorous’ relationships between three or more people.

Cambridge City Council approved a “domestic partnership ordinance” that placed polyamory on an equivalent legal footing to marriage.

Last year, legislators in the neighbouring city of Somerville were the first to broaden the meaning of family to include those in a relationship with more than one other person.

LGBT activists

The Catholic News Agency reports that the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC) helped Cambridge City Council draft the changes to its municipal code.

At a public hearing to consider the proposed amendments in January, several LGBT activists spoke in favour of the changes.

Among them was PLAC’s Kimberly Rhoten, who even claimed that “about 20% of all Americans” had participated in some sort of “consensual non monogamous relationship” in their lifetime.

Family redefined

At a full council meeting on 8 March, members voted to change the definition of a “domestic partnership” to mean a relationship “formed by two or more persons”.

Under the amendment, members of multi-partner ‘families’ are allowed to file for legal recognition if they are in a “relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment and intend to remain in such a relationship”.

Partners may pull out from an arrangement by submitting a “withdrawal statement” and paying a $5 fee.

‘No boundaries’

The president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, commented: “America’s slippery slope is even icier now, with the news that another city council has officially recognized polyamorous relationships as an acceptable form of domestic partnership.”

“Once a culture rejects God’s design, basic biology, and thousands of years of civilization, there are no boundaries”.

Also see:

Young people/crowd/students

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Multiple partner relationships could become norm, says BBC

Utah Senate supports decriminalising polygamy