*West Hollywood will soon give polyamorous relationships a place on the city’s books. Once a new City Council ordinance takes effect Dec. 2, three or more committed adults can sign up as a “multi-partner domestic relationship,” KTLA reports.
The measure expands on a step city leaders took in March, when West Hollywood outlawed bias against polyamorous people.
West Hollywood now joins a handful of cities taking on the issue. Somerville and Cambridge, Massachusetts, pioneered city registration for multi-partner relationships years ago. Berkeley and Oakland, California, also bar unequal treatment based on a person’s household or living arrangements. In 2026, Portland and Astoria, Oregon, and Olympia, Washington, pursued similar safeguards.
Attorney Christina Fialho helped set the local effort in motion. The founder of Rewrite the BiLine, which advocates for bisexual representation in media, approached Councilmember Chelsea Lee Byers with the proposal in 2025. “This law is just the beginning,” Fialho told the Los Angeles Times.
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Registration is limited to consenting adults in a committed partnership who share no family ties by blood. Partners sign up through the city clerk’s office.
Residency isn’t required. Out-of-town families can use the status as proof of their bond, even where local law doesn’t recognize them. That could help when picking up a child from school or checking on a partner who’s been hospitalized.
Registered partners can visit one another in jails, hospitals, and other medical settings. The law also shields them in rental housing.
The status does have limits. It doesn’t carry the legal weight of marriage or a domestic partnership in California. Supporters still see it as a way to ease the hurdles polyamorous people encounter with landlords, doctors, schools, and other services.
Fialho believes the change carries emotional weight as well. “I think it makes it possible for people to dream about a future they once thought was out of reach,” she said.
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