West Hollywood’s City Council approved an ordinance this week allowing people in polyamorous relationships to register as domestic partners.
While the law does not confer the same rights as marriage or state domestic partnerships, it does offer certain protections to people in multi-partner relationships, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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According to the outlet, the law creates an official registry for groups of three or more adults who are in romantic or otherwise committed relationships. People in such relationship structures — known as polycules — can file a statement with the West Hollywood city clerk to create an official record of their relationship, so long as they can prove that the relationship is consensual and that they are not related by blood.
The law requires all healthcare facilities and jails in the city’s jurisdiction to allow all partners of patients or inmates to visit. It also extends housing protections and other benefits to people in registered polycules.
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Advocates say such laws are necessary because people in polycules frequently face barriers in housing, healthcare, education, and other services.
Attorney and Rewrite the BiLine founder Christina Fialho told the outlet that the ordinance, which was unanimously approved by the West Hollywood City Council Tuesday, “is just the beginning.”
“I think it makes it possible for people to dream about a future they once thought was out of reach,” Fialho said.
Fialho pointed to a provision of the law allowing people who live outside of West Hollywood’s city limits to register their multi-partner relationships. Registering with the city, she explained, may help legitimize those relationships in institutions and facilities like schools and hospitals outside of West Hollywood.
Earlier this year, the city officially banned discrimination against people in polyamorous relationships. It’s one of several cities across the US — including Portland, Oregon; Berkeley, California; and most recently Seattle, Washington — to do so. West Hollywood also joins two Massachusetts cities, Somerville and Cambridge, as the only cities in the country to extend domestic partnerships to polycules.
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