Somerville city considers ‘family or relationship structure’ as similar to race, gender or sexual orientation thereby extending legal protection to all nontraditional family structures including polyamorous households|felibrilu|CC BY-NC 2.0
The city council of Somerville, Massachusetts passed legislation last month that would legally protect people in polyamorous relationships and other nontraditional family structures from police and employment discrimination.
In doing so, Sommerville has become the first city in the country to protect polyamorous families.
The city considers “family or relationship structure” as similar to race, gender or sexual orientation thereby extending legal protection to all nontraditional family structures including polyamorous households.
Polyamory involves having multiple romantic or sexual partners at the same time and is completely consensual.
Around 4-5% of Americans are polyamorous and 21% reported engaging in consensual non-monogamy at some point in their life, per the 2016 study in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy.
Other cities are taking note
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Berkeley and Oakland in California are considering similar ordinances to protect polyamorous and nontraditional families.