Relationship rights advocates in the Pacific Northwest are pushing to establish legal protections for people who are polyamorous or in other nontraditional relationship structures.
In Olympia, City Council members voted unanimously last month to add “diverse family and relationship structures” to the city’s antidiscrimination law and to its unfair housing practices law. The move makes Olympia the first city in Washington to adopt explicit legal protections for polyamorous people.
The Portland City Council advanced similar legislation last month. Advocates say they are now pushing for protections in other Washington cities, including Tacoma and Seattle.
After getting enough cities on board, organizers hope they will be able to convince lawmakers to pass anti-discrimination protections at the state level, said Jessa Davis, executive director of the Seattle Coalition for Relationship Equity.
“It’s a basic protection,” Davis said. “We’re not coming for anyone, we’re not forcing anyone to be polyamorous. It is literally just saying, ‘Let people live and let live in their own lives.’”
Studies suggest that at least 5% of Americans practice some type of consensual nonmonogamy, an umbrella term that generally refers to people who have multiple romantic partners who know about each other and are cool with it. The Olympia laws cover polyamory along with a variety of other nontraditional household structures, such as single-parent, multigenerational, blended and chosen families.
Awareness of polyamory and other diverse family structures has grown in recent years, Davis said, but many people still feel pressured to keep it hidden. “Mostly because of the stigma, but that stigma can also then translate into real, material harm,” she added.
People in polyamorus relationships often face discrimination in areas such as housing, employment and healthcare, Davis said. She said it can look like a realtor telling a prospective buyer that a three-bedroom house “is not for three couples,” or an employer telling a job applicant that a position “isn’t really appropriate for someone with your kind of lifestyle.”
In a 2025 survey, 61% of respondents reported experiencing stigma or discrimination on the basis of their nonmonogamous identity.
During the vote last month, Olympia Mayor Dontae Payne said that, as a gay man, he understands the importance of protecting people at the local level.
“For me, this is recognizing the fact that people who are in different kinds of families already live in our community,” Payne said.
In Portland and other cities, some elected officials have expressed concern about new polyamory protections drawing the attention and ire of the Trump administration. But overall, Davis said officials have been receptive. The legislation doesn’t cost anything to implement; it relies on existing civil enforcement mechanisms.
“It’s literally just adding a definition,” Davis said. “It’s not as heavy a lift as some people might fear. We’re not trying to, like, push comprehensive gun reform.”
Davis said she has been speaking with Seattle councilmembers about passing similar legislation soon. The city’s Human Rights Commission, LGBTQ+ Commission, and Renters’ Commission have all signed on to a letter urging the mayor and City Council to pass the bill, she said.
“I’m optimistic for Seattle in the next several weeks to several months,” Davis said. “Once Olympia materialized and became a done deal, that really changed the conversation.”
Some advocates have discussed legalizing plural domestic partnerships as a next step, though Davis acknowledges that’s a “bigger conversation that will take a bit longer.” Only a handful of cities in Massachusetts — Somerville, Cambridge, and Arlington — currently allow for someone to have multiple domestic partnerships. Marriage to multiple people is illegal in all 50 states.
In upcoming state legislative sessions, Davis’ organization is planning to push a bill called Indigo’s Law, which aims to make it easier for unmarried people to delegate legal next-of-kin authority to their chosen family. The law was inspired by Indigo Greene, a trans woman in Seattle whose fiancée had to launch a legal battle with Greene’s estranged parents after her death to ensure her burial wishes were honored.
