The Seattle City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass an ordinance officially recognizing non-monogamous and polyamorous relationships, as well as multigenerational households, as protected classes.
The measure will amend sections of the Seattle Municipal Code to “recognize genders outside the gender binary, recognize pansexuality and asexuality as orientations, and include consensual relationships with multiple partners as an element of attitudes, preferences, and practices pertaining to sexual orientation.”
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Seattle is the 10th and largest city in the United States to pass protections for polyamorous relationships, The Guardian reported. The law will take effect on June 1, 2027.
The protections will apply to employment, housing, business licensure, places of public accommodation, park usage, and “bias-free policing,”according to the proposal. Under the law, residents facing unfair treatment could file complaints and seek remedy through Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights.
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The bill’s sponsor, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, said the update helps the law “reflect how our neighbors define themselves and define their families.” Rinck added that the ordinance is part of a “decades-long process” in the city of establishing protected classes with “a degree of inclusivity.”
Seattle resident Jessa Davis reportedly led a grassroots movement to pass the measure after her partner was discriminated against at work due to being non-monogamous. “If we’re not expanding the circle of protections, we are leaving ground for people who aren’t being quiet about the fact that they are coming for marriage equality next,” Davis told The Guardian.
Last year, the Seattle Human Rights Commission wrote a letter to the council supporting the bill, emphasizing the “urgency” to pass it.
“People in multi-parent or multi-partner families, multi-generational households, chosen families, single parents, intentionally single individuals, and those in consensually nonmonogamous, asexual, or aromantic relationships continue to face discrimination in housing, employment, and public life simply because their family structures fall outside outdated norms,” the letter stated.
“By explicitly recognizing family and relationship structure as a protected class, the City affirms that safety, housing stability, employment access, and public participation should not depend on whether someone’s life fits a traditional mold. The proposed amendments do not create special treatment. They ensure equal treatment, closing loopholes that currently allow exclusion, harassment, and denial of opportunity to persist unchecked.”
The Commission also communicated the “cascading impacts” of housing and employment discrimination: “It destabilizes families, limits economic mobility, and undermines public trust in institutions meant to serve all residents.”
Somerville, Massachusetts, near Boston, became the first city in the country torecognize polyamorous relationshipsin 2020, with an expanded domestic partner ordinance. That legislation granted poly partners the same rights as married couples, including hospital visitation and conferring health insurance benefits. In 2023, the cityextended specific anti-discrimination protectionsin employment and for police interactions.
As well as Somerville, Portland, Berkley and West Hollywood, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Oakland, California; Olympia, Washington; Astoria, Oregon; and Hazel Park, Michigan have all instituted similar protections.
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