Pride Month Is Here!

June is Pride Month. 

Like so many other observances, it has become commercialized in a lot of ways. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather corporations call positive attention to it rather than how things were in the old days, when LGBTQ+ people were invisible or portrayed as predators.

We should also keep in mind that there are LGBTQ+ people who are monogamous, and those who are polyamorous or otherwise involved in consensual, ethical, or disclosed nonmonogamy. There are also LGBTQ+ people who are consangunamorous or have consanguineous relationships. All these people should have their rights.

Let's celebrate gender, sexuality, and relationship diversities. May allies join in, and may there be solidarity for all!

Let's make it a great month!

Monday is Memorial Day in the US

Monday, May 29 is a day that fallen military personnel are honored and remembered.

Some of our fallen were LGBTQ+, some were polyamorous. Some were consanguinamorous. Until somewhat recently, none of them could be open about who they were or who they loved without dire consequences; only some of our LGBTQ+ military personnel have been able to come out thanks to the end of DADT and the implementation of some protections. Polyamorous and consanguinamorous people still have to hide and are denied their rights.

Some were drafted and had no choice but to serve.

Yet along with the rest of their military brothers and sisters, they fought and struggled and suffered.

So please let freedom ring.

Someone should be able to serve honorably and without being ordered to act unjustly, no matter their gender identity, sexual orientation or their relationships with consenting adults. And they should be able to have their marriages registered with their states, and certainly not be punished for their relationships.

Documentary on GSA is Seeking Siblings and Half-Siblings

Documentary filmmakers are looking for siblings or half-siblings in certain situations.

This is posted at their request...

Together with Dutch director Sophie Drost I am working on an international documentary about GSA.

The tone of our film won’t be negative about GSA relationships, but curious and open minded.

In my role as a researcher I am trying to get in touch with siblings who just found out that they have a (half) brother or sister and are at the very start of a relationship. 

You haven’t met yet, you still have many questions and you don’t know where this going.

If you are willing to talk to me and take me and Sophie along in your journey, please contact me on wytzia@xs4all.n

Wytzia Soetenhorst

Of course people who are experiencing, or could experience Genetic Sexual Attraction or Genetic Attraction may be cautious about dealing with journalists, but, hopefully, some people can make positive contributions to this project. If you think you have something to contribute, contact them and see how things go. Contacting them doesn’t obligate you to do more or to keep in contact, but maybe you’ll find it worth your while.

Raising awareness of GSA is very important.

Pan Visibility Day - Wednesday, May 24

May 24 is Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness and Visibility Day. 

Pansexual people are sexually attracted to people regardless of gender or of any gender.

Panromantic people are romantically attracted to people regardless of gender or of any gender.

This is true even if they are currently monogamous, or in a relationship with one person (or not in a relationship at all).

Pansexual and panromantic people are part of LGBTQ+ and often face discrimination for their gender, sexuality, and relationship diversities. Pansexual and/or panromantic people, regardless of gender, should be as free as anyone to live their lives free of harassment, prejudice, bigotry, and bullying.

Are you pansexual and/or panromantic? Do you think you might be? You are certainly not alone! Some highly accomplished people have come out pansexual and/or panromantic. As always, feel free to comment below (you can do so anonymously, if you'd like), or if you'd rather communicate privately, contact Keith.

Frequently Asked Question: Why Do Polyamorists Get Married?

The question is asked as though the person asking assumes that actual monogamy is a requirement for marriage. It isn’t in most places, even though current marriage laws will only allow monogamy in the legal sense.

For the purpose of this question and answer, I will include any form of honest nonmonogamy, or any label applied, such as open relationship, open marriage, swinging, swapping, polyamory, polyfidelity and polygamy.

Why do swingers get married?

Why do people in open relationships get married?

Why do polyamorous people get married?

The short answer is: For the same reason most other people get married. They want to get married, they think it is the best thing to do at that time in life, or they’re pressured.

Agender Pride Day - Friday May 19

Friday, May 19 is Agender Pride Day.

In addition to celebrating people who identify as agender, the day also brings attention to all of the prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination that agender people endure, like so many others with gender, sexuality, and relationship diversities.

Agender people often identify as having no gender, although some consider their gender to be neutral. Agender may also be referred to as genderfree, genderblank, genderless, gendervoid, non-gendered, ungendered, or null gender. Agender people may be considered nonbinary. 

Like anyone else, agender people should be free to live their lives without fear of harassment or bullying.

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia

May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.

Regardless of someone's sex or gender identity, regardless of their sexual orientation, an adult should be free to be themselves, to be in public, to work, to be "single," or to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any and all consenting adults, without fear of prosecution, bullying, harassment, discrimination, or any other negative effects of homophobia, transphobia, biphobia, etc.

Let's stand up to hate, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, bullying, and unjust laws. Let's protect people from being abused by those who would perpetuate hate.

Progress is often difficult and achieved through much struggle. Sometimes it can seem like there have been setbacks. But overall, progress is being made. Let's keep the momentum going!

How Consanguineous Lovers Can Avoid Trouble

Believe it or not, there are still criminal laws in many places criminalizing consensual sex between adults, and there are still police officers who will investigate people for this "crime," still prosecutors who will take the case before a court, and still judges and jurors who will convict people and sentence them to prison. There are still social workers who will take children away from good parents because those parents love other adults.

It doesn't matter to them how loving the relationships are. It doesn't matter if they love each other more than they could love others, it doesn't matter if the lovers didn't even meet each other until they were adults. It apparently doesn't matter to the people interfering that every dollar or minute they spend trying to stop consenting adults from loving each other is a dollar or minute that could instead go into protecting people, especially children, against predators.

In addition to this persecution of consanguinamorous people, there aren't any protections against other forms of discrimination against the consanguinamorous, such as employment discrimination. There are still many states that don't have protections for LGBT people, either, and polyamorous people are even less protected than monogamous LGBT people.

I sometimes forget that people don’t follow the news and law as closely as I do for this blog, so they may be unaware of these things. So I want to share with you what I've learned.

First, note the disclaimer that there is an ever-present at the bottom of this blog. I'll mostly repeat it here:

Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day, at least around these parts, so Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there, especially mothers who face discrimination, persecution, and even prosecution for loving one or more other adults, and the mothers who've stood by their children who've faced bigotry for being who they are and loving who they do.

We're making progress. Hang in there and continue to care for your loved ones.

If you have plans for an interesting Mother's Day or end up having an interesting Mother's Day and you think our readers will want to hear about it, do tell! Sons and daughters.... any special plans?

I include those who've "adopted" mother figures, especially if you've done so because your own mother is no longer with us or was not a supportive person. Almost all of us have a mother in our life, even if that mother isn't officially family.

Some mothers have recently been surprised by discovering just how much they are loved. Some have recently been reunited after having to be apart for years.

So you mothers or the people who admire them: comment below, which you can do anonymously, or you can email fullmarriageequality at protonmail dot com.

Don't Forget Mother’s Day - This Sunday, May 14

Mother's Day is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of May (at least it is where I live). If you have a mother or mothers in your life you should honor and celebrate - they don't have to be your mother - consider making plans if you haven't already. But if this person IS your mother, and your mother has been a good one, do be sure to show that person how much you appreciate them. 

We keep in mind people become mothers in many ways, including birthing, being married or partnered with someone who gives birth, donating gametes, adopting, fostering, marrying or partnering with someone who has a child, and simply becoming someone's honorary mother through actions.

This applies even more to those of you who have added a special additional bond with your mother, or want to. You have more ways of showing your mother your appreciation than anyone else. If you haven't made plans yet, make them now!

If you have any special plans you want to share, you can comment below, including anonymously. If you want to privately share with me what your plans are, contact me.

NOT a Good Reason to Deny (Polyamorous) Love #16

“Some men will be left out as polygyny increases.” This is based on the assumption that in a culture with gender equality, polygyny would still be more plentiful than polyandry. Anti-equality people, based on this assumption, insist that this will result in unmarried men devolving into criminals.

The mistake here is assuming that the second, third, etc. wives in a polygynous marriage would have wanted one of those unmarried men rather than legally sharing the man they did marry, and that the unmarried men would in turn want to marry them. Some of those men may want to marry men, or not marry at all. Why not allow people to marry the person or people of their choice? Why try to force people to settle? Also, the system is not closed. There are billions of people in the world and more and more people are reaching the age and status of eligibility every second.

There was a study attempting to link polygny to criminal behavior in unmarried/unpartnered men based in part on nineteenth century frontier America. Things have changed a little since then. And guess what? Married men commit crime, too. Most of the men in prison have been married, were married or had at least one girlfriend at the time they were convicted.

Maybe men in the hypothetical polygynous community who don’t get married are violent people. Is it better that they have a wife to beat instead of committing crimes on the street? I don’t want to be the one who tells a woman she can’t marry the man/men or woman/women she wants; rather, she has to marry a less desirable man so that he can take his aggression out on her.

The warnings that polyamorous or polygamous freedom to marry will result in an increase of violent gangs of unmarried men committing crimes falls flat when one considers the overwhelming data revealing both that 1) Men in the US are getting married for the first time later than ever, and 2) Crime rates in the US have decreased.

There is no good reason to deny an adult, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or religion, the right to share love, sex, residence, and marriage (and any of those without the others) with any and all consenting adults without prosecution, bullying, or discrimination.

Feel free to share, copy and paste, and otherwise distribute. This has been adapted from this page at Full Marriage Equality: http://marriage-equality.blogspot.com/p/discredited-invalid-arguments.html

Go to NOT a Good Reason to Deny (Polyamorous) Love #15 

Go to NOT a Good Reason to Deny (Consanguineous) Love #17

A Woman Enjoys Her Brother and Her Wife

We have another exclusive interview to bring you. 

People in consanguinamorous relationships are everywhere, though consanguinamorists tend to be closeted. Fortunately, some are willing to be interviewed for this blog. As a result, Full Marriage Equality has featured scores of exclusive interviews with lovers denied the freedom to marry and have that marriage treated equally under the law. Most can’t even be out of the closet or they’ll face prosecution under absurd incest laws, which, instead of focusing on abuse, also target consensual relationships.

The woman interviewed below should be free to legally marry her lover, or simply to be together without having to hide, yet they can’t. Prejudice can be deadly. They are consenting adults who aren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, including the state in which they now reside, they could be criminally prosecuted for their recreational sex, and might be persecuted severely in addition.

Read the interview below and see for yourself what this woman has to say about the affection she enjoys. You may think this relationship is interesting, or it might make you uncomfortable, or you might find it ideal, even highly erotic, but whatever your reaction, should lovers like these be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights simply because they enjoy each other this way?

Also please note that someone you love, respect, and admire could be in a similar relationship right now. Should they be attacked and denied rights because of the "incest" label?

*****

FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Describe yourself.

Anonymous Woman: I am a retired school teacher. I just could not take the kids anymore. I'm originally from Wichita, Kansas, then Galveston, Texas, now Dallas. I have two brothers and a sister. I'm 55 and married to the love of my life, Jane.