Normalize Non-Monogamous Partnerships
For decades, non monogamous people have been inundated with fear of stigma, discrimination, the possibility of being fired from their jobs, losing custody of children, and more based on a blanket assumption that polyam families are bad for children, bad for our corporate or nonprofit reputation, and bad for our communities.
With Utah decriminalizing polygamy and Somerville, Massachusettes legal recognition of multiple-partner relationships in 2020, we’re heading in an important and critical direction. But as a city ordinance, Somerville cannot mandate that corporate employers based elsewhere cover city residents' multiple partners on their health insurance or require the federal government to provide multiple partners with Social Security benefits. It does however, provide unprecedented legal protections for people in multiple-partner relationships.
Diverse family structures are not new yet non-traditional families have been denied equal access to government protections afforded to normative monogamous partnerships. Now more than ever, access to health insurance coverage is vital and COVID-19 has made us uncomfortably aware of this.
Ultimately, we shouldn’t need to depend on our partners or our employers for medical insurance but that is the reality of our US capitalist system.
As nonprofit leaders, we know policy change is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes coalition building, various approaches and theories, research, building power, policy networks, disruptive innovation, institutional change, narrative strategy, implementation and so much more. Change is possible, we’ve done it before and we can do it again.
Start having these conversations. Normalize non-monogamous relationship structures. Validate multiple-partner relationships. Practice empathy and start paving the way for innovation. Stop gatekeeping healthcare access and acknowledge staff whose relationship structures don’t fit the confines of normative monogamous partnerships. We deserve better.
