Diverse Families Rejoice; Cambridge City Council Passes Historic Nondiscrimination Law

CAMBRIDGE, MA - On Monday night, Cambridge became the second city in the country to protect diverse families from discrimination based on relationship structure, including polyamorous families, platonic partners, and other non-nuclear families. 

The ordinance was drafted by the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC) with support from the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. PLAC previously passed historic model ordinances for multi-partner domestic partnership in Somerville, Cambridge and Arlington, MA as well as a model ordinance on nondiscrimination in Somerville. Non-discrimination laws and plural domestic partnership laws based on PLAC’s model ordinances have been introduced on the West Coast and are expected to pass this year. 

Cambridge’s new ordinance prohibits discrimination in employment, policing, and more based on one's family structure. It defines “family structure” to include “a single person, or two persons, or a consensual non-monogamous or consensual multi-partner family structure which may include one or more parents, stepparents or legal guardians of a minor child or children and/or two or more consenting adults in a multi-partner and/or multi-parent family structure, including stepparents, multi-generational and/or other non-nuclear families.” 

Alexander Chen, Founding Director of the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic and co-founder of PLAC, stated: “Cambridge made a statement today that all types of families are welcome, deserve equitable treatment under the law, and should be able to live without fear of discrimination based on what their family looks like.”