Imagine one house, with four people, but five couples. How does it work, asks Jo Fidgen.
Charlie is talking excitedly about a first date she went on the night before.
Next to her on the sofa is her husband of six years, Tom. And on the other side of him is Sarah, who’s been in a relationship with Tom for the last five years. Sarah’s fiance, Chris, is in the kitchen making a cup of tea.
The two women are also in a full-blown relationship, while the two men are just good friends. Together, they make a polyamorous family and share a house in Sheffield.
Well, why not? If you are going to allow same sex blessings/marriages you have no principled basis to object to this. I wonder what a polyamourus blessing rite would look like?
I wonder how marriage benefits would be partialed out? My guess is that at some point the states would not recognize any marriage and put an end to it. If they have to recognize everything or none they will probably recognize none.
I have long believed marriage must either be the one thing it has been taught to be (a man and a woman) or it must be everything/nothing. Stories like this one on the Beeb and elsewhere (and there are getting to be a quite a few of them, most with a kind of breathless excitement similar to the to same-sex “marriage” reportage over the last decade or more) bear this out. In another ten years, it seems that marriage will become impossible to define or limit, and thus effectively dead as a term at law.
You certainly could have polyamorous unions structured along the lines of limited liability companies, for example with members, affiliate members and managing members. There could be similar provisions in the marriage laws governing this, how you get in or get out, how your interest in the polyamorous group is determined and what liquidation and buy out rights you have, etc. Like an LLC full membership would require agreement by all other members, but you could also be an affiliate member, essentially recognized as a submember under another member. This could all be taken care of by annual reports required to be filed with the government stating the present status of the group and any changes, also a copy of the articles or organization and bylaws of the group.
Also, the government should recognize temporary marriages for a term of years. It would be unjust to require all people getting married to agree to a lifetime commitment.
To have true marriage equality and avoid discrimination, the states and federal government certainly should be willing to recognize structures like this and grant them the benefits of marriage.