Massachusetts City Becomes the First State to Recognize Polyamorous Relationships
Jul 10, 2020
The city of Somerville, Massachusetts, has expanded its definition of domestic partnership to give polyamorous relationships, or consenting relationships with multiple partners, the same rights as married couples. Under its new domestic partnership ordinance, the city now grants polyamorous groups rights such as the right to “confer health insurance benefits or make hospital visits.”
The city of Somerville, until June, did not have any domestic partnership ordinance, however some unmarried Somerville residents had expressed concern to the council over their ability to visit sick partners in the hospital or access partners’ health insurance in light of COVID-19.
While the ordinance originally defined a domestic partnership as a relationship between two people, Councilor Lance Davis altered the measure’s language to include polyamorous relationships just moments before the council meeting, stating, “I’ve consistently felt that when society and government (sic) tries to define what is or is not a family, we’ve historically done a very poor job of doing so… It hasn’t gone well, and it’s not a business that government should be in, so that guided my thinking on this.” Obviously Councilor Davis didn’t appreciate the irony of his own statement; by passing the ordinance, the government has in fact defined what is and is not a family.
