Polyamorous Americans are celebrating new laws establishing their ‘inherent worth and dignity’

By Jake Thomas, The Guardian

Portland is the latest US city to codify polyamorous rights in housing, jobs and public spaces, and more could follow.

…Portland’s ordinance is the latest in a recent wave of cities including West Hollywood and Olympia, Washington’s capital city, extending civil rights protections to those in nontraditional family or romantic arrangements. Eight cities across Massachusetts and the west coast now have some form of legal recognition of polyamorous relationships. Taken together, the efforts signal the emergence of a stigmatized group as a political constituency, as well as a challenge to the legal dominance of the traditional nuclear family – which has become the exception rather than the rule.

In 1970, about two-thirds of Americans ages 25 to 49 were living with a spouse and at least one child, according to the Pew Research Center. Over the next five decades, that figure dropped to 37%, according to Pew.

“I’d like to get the government out of the business of evaluating our personal relationships,” said Diana Adams, an attorney who heads the Chosen Family Law Center and helped write ordinances in Massachusetts.

Adams said their bigger goal isn’t marriage for polyamorous people, but “unbundling” rights and benefits tied up in institutions that favor people in traditional relationships, including taxes, health insurance benefits and hospital visitation.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/03/polyamory-legal-protections