West Hollywood recognizes multi-partner domestic relationships

West Hollywood has approved a policy recognizing domestic relationships involving more than two people, a move that has revived an old debate over whether expanding the legal definition of marriage could lead to broader changes in family law.

Earlier warnings

Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004. By the time the Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, 35 states and Washington, D.C., had already done so.

During the debate, some opponents argued that changing the definition of marriage could eventually make it harder to draw legal boundaries around other kinds of relationships. James Dobson, the late founder of Focus on the Family, said in 2004 that once marriage was extended to same-sex couples, there would be no clear reason to rule out plural marriages.

Other conservative figures made similar arguments. In 2009, televangelist Pat Robertson questioned how the law could distinguish between same-sex marriage and polygamy. In 2011, Matthew Franck, a senior fellow at the Witherspoon Institute, argued that broadening marriage’s definition could make the institution’s limits less clear.

Those warnings were often dismissed by same-sex marriage supporters as unfounded. In a 2013 article, Whet Moser, now an editor at The New York Times, argued that same-sex marriage and polygamy were different: he described homosexuality as biological and polygamy as cultural, and suggested there would be much greater demand for the former.

West Hollywood’s new ordinance

West Hollywood’s City Council unanimously approved an ordinance Monday establishing a registration process for “multi-partner domestic relationships” and extending certain local protections to people in those relationships.

The ordinance defines such a relationship as one involving at least three adults who are legally capable of entering a contract, are not related more closely than state law allows, and take responsibility for one another’s welfare. Participants must not already be in another polygamous relationship. The policy does not appear to cap the number of people who can register, and people who do not live in the city may also apply.

The ordinance says multi-partner relationships are becoming more common, but do not receive formal recognition or the same protections as monogamous marriages and domestic partnerships under state or federal law. The council said recognition could have both practical and symbolic value, and described the policy as a way to protect people from discrimination based on their relationships.

The measure could affect local rules involving housing, city jails and city health care facilities.

Christina Fialho, an activist who proposed the policy to Councilwoman Chelsea Lee Byers last year, called the ordinance a first step. She said it could help people imagine a future they previously thought was beyond reach.

West Hollywood is not the first U.S. city to recognize domestic partnerships involving more than two people. Somerville, Massachusetts, approved such a policy in 2020, followed by Cambridge and Arlington. Recent proposals have also been discussed in Berkeley and Oakland, California, and in several Oregon cities.

Mark Hemingway of RealClearInvestigations argued that the developments matched what critics of same-sex marriage had predicted, while many supporters had said such changes would not follow. The issue remains contested, but West Hollywood’s ordinance has brought that debate back into view.