Olympia, Wash., Weighs Civil-Rights Protections for Polyamorous and Other Non‑Traditional Families

Olympia, Washington’s capital city, is considering a civil-rights ordinance that would add "family or relationship structure" as a protected category, explicitly covering polyamorous relationships and a range of non-traditional family arrangements. The draft language would protect people in multi-partner and multi-parent families, chosen families, multi-generational households, blended and step-families, and single-parents-by-choice from discrimination in areas such as housing and employment. Councilmember Robert Vanderpool says the goal is to make residents in such arrangements feel welcome and avoid being "ostracized," citing particular problems around housing and adding multiple adults to mortgages or leases. City officials are working with OPEN, the Oakland-based Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-Monogamy, whose director Brett Chamberlain points to survey data that 60% of non-monogamous individuals report stigma or discrimination and argues that only 18% of U.S. households now fit the traditional nuclear-family model. Chamberlain says a vote expected on Feb. 9 would make Olympia the first city in Washington and the fifth in the country—after Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Berkeley and Oakland, California—to adopt such protections, signaling a small but growing legal recognition of diverse household structures.