OPINION
(Photo: ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Natalie Sandoval
Patriots Writer
March 12, 20265:01 PM ET
A Quiet Coastal Revolution
“Why only two?”
The question, posed six years ago by J.T. Scott, a member of the city council of Somerville, Massachusetts, is at the heart of the debate concerning government recognition of polyamory.
Scott and his colleague on the city council were considering a domestic partnership ordinance. The original language of the draft specified a domestic partnership as being “between two people,” according to The Harvard Crimson.
Councilor Lance L. Davis paused, saying “something didn’t feel quite right,” reports The Crimson. Scott asked the question: “Why only two?”
Davis, in his words, executed a “few simple tweaks,” altering the ordinance to permit groups of more than two adults to register in domestic partnerships together. The city council voted 11-0 to pass the ordinance.
It was signed by then-Mayor Joe Curtatone on June 29, 2020, becoming the first “multiple-partner domestic partnership ordinance” in the United States, according to the Harvard Law Review.
Cambridge, Somerville’s neighbor, followed suit, amending their existing domestic partnership statute to cover two or more persons in 2021.
A Quiet Coastal Revolution
“Why only two?”
The question, posed six years ago by J.T. Scott, a member of the city council of Somerville, Massachusetts, is at the heart of the debate concerning government recognition of polyamory.
Scott and his colleague on the city council were considering a domestic partnership ordinance. The original language of the draft specified a domestic partnership as being “between two people,” according to The Harvard Crimson.
Councilor Lance L. Davis paused, saying “something didn’t feel quite right,” reports The Crimson. Scott asked the question: “Why only two?”
Davis, in his words, executed a “few simple tweaks,” altering the ordinance to permit groups of more than two adults to register in domestic partnerships together. The city council voted 11-0 to pass the ordinance.
It was signed by then-Mayor Joe Curtatone on June 29, 2020, becoming the first “multiple-partner domestic partnership ordinance” in the United States, according to the Harvard Law Review.
Cambridge, Somerville’s neighbor, followed suit, amending their existing domestic partnership statute to cover two or more persons in 2021.
