Polygamy

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
61

I’m polyamorous and part of a network of poly people. (That tends to happen: your girlfriends each have other boyfriends who have other girlfriends, you get daisy-chain connections leading out in various directions). I know some people would like the protections and status afforded by marriage. Me, I’m disdainfully wrinkling my nose at the institution of marriage and feeling no interest or attraction. Opinions vary.

Frankly I’d like to see legal flexibility in setting up households and partnerships. Unlike gay people, who quite reasonably felt second-class-citizenned by the notion that domestic partnership oughta be good enough for them and marriage enshrined for hetero couples, I don’t feel like the legal arrangement need to be marriage or in any way based on marriage. But it would be nice to be able to formalize some things without having to incorporate as if we were going into business or something.

62

Yeah, I was raised in a poly household, although I didn’t realise it until my teens. My dad and stepmom’s partners were called “roommates”. I also know several poly families. My ex husband and his partners are considering forming a household, as well.

63

Yes. I know a committed poly triad wherein the two women, who are not gay, are legally married to each other and have had a commitment ceremony with the man they both live with. This was their solution to the three of them not being able to marry each other. They have been living together happily for years now.

I also know a lawfully married man-and-woman couple wherein the woman has also had a girlfriend for many years; the girlfriend recently proposed and they intend to add her to their marriage. I suppose it won’t be a legal marriage, but for all intents and purposes they will all be married to each other.