West Hollywood approves legal protections for polyamorous relationships

West Hollywood is already deeply democratic and well-known for its support of LGBTQ relationships and alternative lifestyles. West Hollywood has become the latest US city to create a domestic partnership registry to recognize polyamorous relationships. The city’s five-person council unanimously approved an ordinance on Tuesday that grants legal protections to multi-partner family structures, a move that came as much of the rest of the United States was gripped by the Democratic wipe-out of Republicans in the midterm elections. But West Hollywood, an independent city of about 35,000 people in Los Angeles County, is already deeply blue and well-known for its support of LGBTQ relationships and alternative lifestyles. Polyamory is the practice of maintaining multiple committed, consensual relationships. The ordinance approved Tuesday is relatively limited compared to the rights conferred by marriage, or the domestic partnership laws that exist in many states. But registering a poly relationship with the city will allow people certain rights, including for hospital visitation or tenant protections. People living outside the city limits of West Hollywood will be allowed to register, which advocates hope will help legitimize their unions even if their own municipalities don’t confer such rights. Several members of the public submitted comments to the West Hollywood council saying they hoped the new ordinance would serve as a model elsewhere. “As a polyamorous person since 1974, and living in Pasadena, California, I’m grateful for this Council’s leadership in recognizing diverse family and relationship structures,” wrote Jim Bratcher in an email to council members. Two cities in Massachusetts, Somerville and Cambridge, created similar registries within recent years. West Hollywood has also joined at least two other California cities, Berkeley and Oakland, in outlawing discrimination based on alternative family structures.