We want transgender people to know: You are welcome here. We care. We will continue to speak up for your rights.
Advocating for the right of consenting adults to share and enjoy love, sex, residence, and marriage without limits on the gender, number, or relation of participants. Full marriage equality is a basic human right.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Transgender Day of Visibility 2021
We want transgender people to know: You are welcome here. We care. We will continue to speak up for your rights.
Friday, March 26, 2021
Media Request
*****
Hey everyone,
*****
Emphasis mine.
All I know is what is in that notice. But based on what she has said, if you are at all inclined to consider participating, I recommend contacting her. Ask her questions. If you end up not participating in her article, there's no harm to you.
While caution is justified, we need to get GSA and consanguinamory stories in the media in a positive way.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Women Can Have Multiple Spouses, Too
Women can enjoy multiple spouses, multiple husbands, multiple wives, multiple partners, multiple girlfriends, multiple boyfriends, and dating multiple people. A woman can love more than one person, have multiple ongoing romantic relationships, and have multiple ongoing sexual relationships.
Regular readers of this blog may find such statements to be obvious, but way too often, when I read or hear news or commentary about “polygamy,” what is meant is “polygyny” (one husband, multiple wives). Polyandry, meaning one wife with multiple husbands, has existed in tradition and still exists in modern relationships, and it is polygamy, too, as are spousal relationships between multiple women and multiple men, or three or more men, or three or more women.
This blog supports relationship rights for adults regardless of gender. A woman should be just as free as a man to marry more than one person, regardless of their genders or how closely related, and just as free as a man to not marry at all. or to leave a marriage.
Polyamory and Polygamy
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
A Healing Love Between Son and Mother
The man interviewed below should’ve been free to be open about the special love he shared with his lover. They were consenting adults who weren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, they could’ve been criminally prosecuted for their love, and might’ve been persecuted severely in addition.
Read the interview below and see for yourself what this man has to say about the healing bond they shared. You may think this relationship is interesting, or it might make you uncomfortable, or you might find it ideal, even highly romantic or erotic, but whatever your reaction, should lovers like these be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights simply because they love each other this way? Should they have to hide?
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?
**WARNING: Mild mentions of sexual touch.**
*****
Anonymous Man: I can tell you my story, I see you're trustable but I can't support your cause openly.
Anonymous Man: That's important for me. I have a family now, and nobody knows anything about my story.
I'm Italian living in Germany. I work as an engineer.
Monday, March 22, 2021
Curious About Polyamory?
Saturday, March 20, 2021
A Loving and Healing Marriage Denied Equality
The woman interviewed below should’ve been free to legally marry her first husband, or simply to be together as a couple without having to hide, yet they couldn’t do either. They were consenting adults who weren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, they could’ve been criminally prosecuted for their love, and might’ve been persecuted severely in addition.
Read the interview below and see for yourself what this woman has to say about the marital bond they shared. You may think this relationship is interesting, or it might make you uncomfortable, or you might find it ideal, even highly romantic, but whatever your reaction, should lovers like these be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights simply because they love 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?
**WARNING: Mentions of child abuse.**
*****
FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Describe yourself.
Melissa: I'm a writer and a symphony musician. I live in a major metropolitan area in Texas with my second husband and our four teenage children. For the purpose of this interview, I’ll refer to myself as Melissa and to my brother as Matthew. These are not our real names. I still worry about repercussions should people know about the full nature of our relationship.
Friday, March 19, 2021
Siblings Having Fun
Not everyone sharing consanguinamory considers their relationship a great love affair or a marriage, though. Some are experimenting, exploring, having recreational sex, or in a family-with-benefits situation.
The man interviewed below, should be free to legally marry his partner, or simply to be together as a couple without having to hide, yet they can’t. They are consenting adults who aren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, they could be criminally prosecuted for their love, and might be persecuted severely in addition.
Read the interview below and see for yourself what this man has to say about fun they share. 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 love 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?
**WARNING: Brief descriptions of sexuality.**
*****
Marc: I am an 18 year old guy from Zagreb, Croatia. I am Caucasian like my family. I am currently in my final year of high school. I want to enroll in law school after that. In my free time I go to the gym and watch sports. I live with my dad, mum and younger sister. My older sister is 20 and lives in another part of Zagreb because she is in college dorm.
FME: How would you describe your gender(s)? How would you describe your sexual orientation?
I'm male, she is female. We are heterosexual and monogamous.
FME: Is she your full blood sister, half sister, stepsister, or adopted sister?
Full blood sister.
Thursday, March 18, 2021
It's Futile to Play Relationship Cop - Assist People Instead
Consanguineous marriages have happened all throughout history all over the planet, and in many places, there are still customary. You have some in your family history, it is almost a certainty. Here's a study under the heading of "Science and society: genetic counseling and customary consanguineous marriage."
Consanguineous marriage is customary in many societies, but leads to an increased birth prevalence of infants with severe recessive disorders. It is therefore often proposed that consanguineous marriage should be discouraged on medical grounds. However, several expert groups have pointed out that this proposal is inconsistent with the ethical principles of genetic counselling, overlooks the social importance of consanguineous marriage and is ineffective. Instead, they suggest that the custom increases the possibilities for effective genetic counseling, and recommend a concerted effort to identify families at increased risk, and to provide them with risk information and carrier testing when feasible.
There needs to be more studies of consanguinamorous relationships and how counselors, therapists, and others can serve them, whether or not the lovers plan to have children. Trying to discourage consenting adults from continuing their relationships is mostly wasteful and often cruel, and in insult to their fundamental rights.This article was published in Nat Rev Genet and referenced in Journal of Clinical Research and Bioethics
- DOI: 10.1038/nrg754
Monday, March 15, 2021
Tale as Old as Time
There are both allies and opponents of relationship rights and full marriage equality in just about every religion and among those who claim no religion, and I welcome allies no matter what tradition, if any, they prefer or reject.
With that out of the way…
Considering the Bible as literature, which anyone can do whether they are a devout Christian, a Deist, a Hindu, an Atheist, or an Antitheist or take some other path, one can see that the Bible implies, outright portrays, and further addresses consanguineous sex.
Frequently, someone will ask “Where did Cain get his wife?” or “Did Adam and Eve’s children have sex with each other?” or some variation. Whether someone considers this speculation about fanciful myths or actual history is irrelevant to analyzing what the text itself says.
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Consanguinamory After COVID
More people than ever at least experimented with consanguineous sex (consensual incest). or just more physical affection with family members. Maybe you're one of them.
Or, maybe you've thought about it, but still haven't done anything.
Either way, with more and more of the planet opening up, what now?
If you started something, you don't need to stop.
If you wanted to start something, you might still be able to.
There's nothing wrong with close relatives or family members sharing and normalizing (more) cuddling, snuggling, spooning, hugging, kissing, touching, going without clothes, bathing or showering together, massaging each other, or talking about sexual feelings, desires, fantasies, or other sexual topics, or sharing sex.
Whether you're blood relatives, step relatives, adoptive relatives, in-laws, or honorary relatives, there's nothing wrong with your feelings and, depending on the circumstances, there may be nothing wrong with sharing more affection.
You might need to read one or more entries on this blog that I list below. Feel free to contact me.
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
A Polyamorous Consanguinamorous Marriage Denied Equal Rights
The woman interviewed below should be free to legally marry her spouses, or simply to be together as a triad or throuple without having to hide, yet they can’t. They are consenting adults who aren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, they could be criminally prosecuted for their love, and might be persecuted severely in addition.
Read the interview below and see for yourself what this woman has to say about the bond they share. You may think this relationship is interesting, or it might make you uncomfortable, or you might find it ideal, even highly erotic and romantic, but whatever your reaction, should lovers like these be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights simply because they love 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?
**WARNING: Mildly explicit descriptions of childhood exploration and adult sex.**
*****
FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Describe yourself.
954Girl: I work for a large, international bank. My dad is a senior corporate executive at a different company. My mom was a stay-at-home mom but did volunteer work, which she continues to do. We live in South Florida but don’t want to say more than that. My brother works for the same bank as I do, but he lives in Australia with his wife.
Cambridge Makes A Good Start
The city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, will become the second municipality in the country to legalize domestic partnerships between three or more people. On Monday, Cambridge City Council approved an ordinance amending the city's existing statute to stipulate that a domestic partnership needn't only include two partners.
Now, a domestic partnership in Cambridge "means the entity formed by two or more persons" who are not related and file a registration declaring that they're "in a relationship of mutual support, caring and commitment and intend to remain in such a relationship," are "not in a domestic partnership with others outside this partnership," and "consider themselves to be a family."
The new language removes the requirement that all individuals in a domestic partnership must reside together. It also does away with a section declaring that domestic partners must submit to the city various pieces of evidence proving their familial relationship.
"The ordinance was developed with detailed input from the newly formed Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition (PLAC), and is the first of what advocates hope will be a wave of legal recognition for polyamorous families and relationships in 2021," said PLAC—a coalition comprised of the Chosen Family Law Center, the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic, and members of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy—in a statement.
"The lack of legal protection makes non-nuclear families especially vulnerable to stigma and discrimination in employment, health care, housing, and social life," notes Diana Adams, executive director of the Chosen Family Law Center. "I have represented hundreds of clients who have been discriminated against because they're polyamorous, whether that meant being unable to visit their life partner in the hospital, losing child custody in court battles, or losing their job. Legal recognition of these families reduces social stigma and provides families with the stability we all deserve."
Every city, every state or province or territory, every country needs to support full marriage equality.
Monday, March 8, 2021
Support the Rights of All Women
All women should be free to be themselves, to have their basic human and civil rights, whether they are cisgender, transgender, or noncomforming or fluid; whether they are asexual, heterosexual, lesbian, bisexual, polysexual, or pansexual; whether they are aromantic, celibate, monogamous, or nonmonogamous. Whether their relationships are exogamous, endogamous, or consanguineous. Whether they are questioning or they are certain. Whether they are raising children or have raised children or not. Whether they are married or partnered or single.
A woman, regardless of her birth, sexual orientation, relationship orientation, race, or religion, should be free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage (and any of those without the others) with ANY and ALL consenting adults, without fear of prosecution, bullying, shaming, or discrimination.
(Same goes for any other adults, too.)
Friday, March 5, 2021
A Letter on Genealogy
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Hi Keith, I am a woman, born about 1975 in the midwestern United States. I read your blog entry...about consanguinamory, reproduction and the number of one's ancestors and thought that I would chime in with my own anonymized family history. There are 24 of us who live in this area who share three surnames, 21 of us trace our ancestry here back to my great-great-grandparents who came over the mountains and down the river from Virginia around 1885. That first generation consisted of three couples. Two of the three surnames came from a pair of Scot-Irish families. Mr. A married Miss B and Mr. B married Miss C (making their children double cousins) and a second Mr. A married the daughter of one of their freed household slaves. So the 24 of us are from one-quarter to one-sixteenth whatever percent of African heritage she was. In addition, 21 of us have Native American ancestry because the third surname came from an itinerant preacher of French Canadian ancestry whose wife was half English and half Seminole. This is advanced math, but I think I am thirteen-sixteenth Scot-Irish, a sixteenth each French Canadian and African and one thirty second each Seminole and English. But, as Arlo Guthrie said, “that is not what I came to tell you about. I came to talk about” consanguinamory, and in particular what the ill-informed refer to as “inbreeding.” Of the 24 people whom share three surnames here. Two are siblings. Twelve, including my pastor and my husband are my first-cousins. I am simultaneously second cousins with six of my twelve first cousins and have six other second cousins. All six of my second cousins are also simultaneously third cousins and the remaining six of the twenty four are my third cousins. I didn’t bother to chart fourth cousins, but we are probably all fourth cousins. So by your account, were there no “inbreeding” I should have two parents, four grandparents, eight grandparents and sixteen great-grandparents. Obviously I have two parents, and like in your model I have four grandparents. But there the similarity ends. I have six (rather than eight) great-grandparents and eight (rather than sixteen) great-great-grandparents. Those who’ve stayed, and many didn’t, are all farmers or they work in some field related to agriculture, education for, or ministering to farm families. Living in the unpolluted countryside, eating natural, mostly unprocessed foods and working at jobs where we get sunlight and exercise we are all pretty healthy. We also stay away from hospitals -- where grandpa says, “one goes to get sick” -- we live longer with fewer health complaints than the state or national average. As a law abiding taxpayer I am rather miffed that the State of ____ thinks that it has the authority to use my tax dollars to engage in poorly planned social engineering through its Education and Public Health Departments falsely denigrating some of its citizens. “Inbreeding” doesn’t create genetic issues, it simply helps pass ones that already exist. They don’t address the “real” issue at all, that certain persons in the population have genetic variations that can cause reproductive harm. That certain people have lifestyle behaviors or jobs that can expose them to genetic mutation or other reproductive harm. They don’t test anyone and they don’t assist anyone. It’s easier to espouse a disproven theory that fits their political agenda. My six great grandparents who lived here had ten children who reached adulthood. The next generation which included two newcomers produced twenty children who survived to adulthood, four of whom moved away. My parents' generation produced 30 children, all of whom lived to adulthood and 24 of whom currently live in the area. I know of five children in that extended family who died from disease or accident before reaching adulthood. All were in my grandparents and great-grandparents' generation, none since. But since 1860 nineteen children born to US presidents died of disease before their seventeenth birthdays, most recently two of John and Jackie Kennedy’s. I assume that all nineteen had the best medical care available. Things were just much more “iffy” in the past.
*****
Interesting. Thanks for the letter, Anonymous!
If you want to comment on anything you see at this blog, you can comment, including anonymously, after most blog entries. You can also contact Keith.
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Cousins Changing States
Can anyone offer insight on the case of 1st cousins who marry where it is legal and later move to a state where it is not. It would seem that the full faith and credit clause of the constitution would offer them protection.
Article. IV. - Section. 1.From what we've seen from family law attorneys online, you appear to be correct, at least with certain states. I do want to remind you that I am not a lawyer or attorney, and I recommend checking with a family law attorney in the state to which you plan to move or have moved.
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
There is a chart on Wikipedia that indicates that some states will not recognize any first cousin marriages from other states, while some others will not recognize them if they are that state's residents who went to another state to get married. It seems to me this has to be unconstitutional based on many precedents.
It is important to note that a handful of US states criminalize sex between (unmarried) first cousins, and yes, people have been recently prosecuted. But it appears as though if you were legally married in one state (which can include "common law marriage" after living together a certain number of years) and move to one of those criminalizing states, you'd be OK.
There is an organization called Cousin Couples that could have answers.
Anyone with personal experience in these matters or who has practiced family law is encouraged to leave a comment.
Cousins, and any other consenting adults, should be free to be together, married or not, without fear of prosecution, bullying, or discrimination. This is why the US and every country needs full marriage equality and relationship rights for all adults.
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Billy and Betty - A Lifelong Love
The man interviewed below, with the agreement of his lover, should be free to legally marry his partner, or simply to be together as a couple without having to hide, yet they can’t. They are consenting adults who aren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, they could be criminally prosecuted for their love, and might be persecuted severely in addition.
Read the interview below and see for yourself what this man has to say about the lifelong bond they share. You may think this relationship is interesting, or it might make you uncomfortable, or you might find it ideal, even highly erotic and romantic, but whatever your reaction, should lovers like these be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights simply because they love 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?
**WARNING: Brief, mild descriptions of childhood exploration.**
*****
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
A Swinging Family
We have another interview to bring you.
The man interviewed below should be free to be with both women in his triad without having to hide from anyone, and without discrimination. They are consenting adults who aren’t hurting anyone; why should they have been denied their rights? In much of the world, they could be criminally prosecuted for their love, and might be persecuted severely in addition.
Read the interview below and see for yourself what this man has to say about the new, additional bond he and his wife have. You may think this relationship is interesting, or it might make you uncomfortable, or you might find it ideal, even highly erotic and romantic, but whatever your reaction, should lovers like these be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights simply because they love 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?
**WARNING: Brief, mild descriptions of sex are included.**
*****
FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Describe yourself.
Mr. Jackson: I’m owner of multiple small stores in Florida. I’ll not dive in the things I work with, but I have a very easy and calm life, without any monetary problems. My wife and I are Brazilians, but we moved around eight years ago to the US for good. We have our daughter, single child, who just turned 24. We are all whites, and we live in South Florida.