Seattle bans discrimination against polyamorous, nonmonogamous people

Catalina Gaitán, The Seattle Times on Sep 16, 2026

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SEATTLE — Seattle on Tuesday became the latest U.S. city to extend civil rights protections to people in polyamorous and nonmonogamous relationships.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass a law barring discrimination in employment, housing, business licensure, park usage, policing and public accommodation against adults in consensual relationships with more than one partner.

The bill also expands such protections to nonbinary people in general by removing “male or female” from the city’s definition of sexual orientation, and broadens the protected category’s definition to include pansexuality — attraction to people regardless of gender identity — and asexuality — not experiencing sexual attraction while sometimes experiencing romantic or significant connection to other people.

Before Tuesday’s vote, Council member Alexis Mercedes Rinck, the bill’s sponsor, said the legislation also protects multigenerational and blended families where more than two adults share co-parenting responsibilities, reflecting “how people actually live.”

“Every family is different, but every single one deserves equal protection under the law,” Rinck said. “Chosen family is family.”

About 5% of people in North America report currently being in a consensual nonmonogamous relationship, and up to 20% report being in such a relationship at one point, according to a Sept. 9 report by city staff to the council’s Housing, Arts and Civil Rights committee.

West Coast cities including Olympia, Portland, Oakland and West Hollywood have passed similar laws, as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. push for legislation that would define gender as exclusively male or female, bar transgender athletes from participating in school sports and invalidate driver’s licenses that do not include a person’s sex assigned at birth.

In April, Tennessee lawmakers voted to designate June — long known as LGBTQ+ Pride month — “nuclear family month,” adopting a resolution that declares families consisting of one husband and one wife, “God’s design for familial structure.”

During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, advocates for Seattle’s bill described having to hide their polyamorous relationships to avoid stigma and discrimination.

Jessa Davis, executive director of the national nonprofit Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-monogamy and a co-chair of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission, said people sometimes misunderstand legislation seeking protections for nonmonogamous people as “flashy or clickbait-y.”

“It’s more about how family is today, and having the law catch up with how people really live their lives,” Davis said.

Seattle’s bill pointed to prior public policy decisions passed at the city and state level, including those allowing Washingtonians to use the nonbinary “X” gender marker on their birth certificates and state-issued driver’s licenses, and Seattle City Council’s ordinance designating all-gender restrooms in city facilities.

Applause broke out after Tuesday’s vote.

“I know people I love and care deeply about will be safer because of this legislation,” Councilmember Dionne Foster said.

The legislation takes effect on June 1.

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