Solidarity Helps

Over and over and over again, this blog has called for solidarity between marginalized communities and their allies so that we stand up for the rights and dignity of all adults to be themselves and have their relationships. So a headline that reads "The great divide: polyamory, 'throuuples' and the LGBTI community" caught our eye. It's from something written by Corey Sinclair at starobserver.com.au.

AS the battle for marriage equality wages on for lesbian and gay men, and the popularity and awareness of the polyamorous lifestyle continues to rise, the divide between the two communities seemingly grows larger.

That's a sad way to start.

It is not uncommon to encounter ‘throuples’ in the gay community, but for many polyamory has become a dirty word. One that is seen as a possible obstacle to achieve their ultimate end goal – marriage equality.

The freedom to have polyamorous marriage is an essential part of full marriage equality.

When relationship coach Anne Hunter co-founded polyamorous community group PolyVic in 2004, it was much more of a queer collective. But as time passed, “queerphobic” heterosexual members joined, and the push towards marriage equality meant more and more LGBTI felt uncomfortable associating with the term.

Shame on those queerphobes.

“What is really disturbing is the growing experience of condemnation that queer people are getting from other queer people about ethical non-monogamy,” she tells the Star Observer.

Ugh. How about SOLIDARITY???

Polyamorous.com.au is the latest addition to an ever expanding online poly community, gaining almost 50 new users a day.

Great.

Originally coming from a swingers background, it wasn’t until Ashleigh met someone who was poly that she felt as though she had found her place.

It's important to know the difference between swinging and polyamory. Many, probably most, polyamorous people do not swing, and many swingers would not identify themselves as polyamorous. Some polyamorous people will have fewer partners over their lifetime than some people who identify as monogamous, and other polyamorous people swing.

Some of the people quoted in the article have less optimism than we do. Full marriage equality will happen sooner or later. We're helping to make it sooner. There's no good reason to deny it. Let's work together instead of allowing the bigots to divide and conquer.