On Tuesday, September 15, Seattle City Council passed a measure to include polyamory, asexuality and pansexuality in the city’s list of protected classes. In doing so, the city has extended civil rights to people who are in non-monogamous relationships or who are asexual or pansexual.

According to research cited by the city council, 10-20% of North Americans have engaged in consensual non-monogamy, and 5% are currently in non-monogamous relationships. A 2018 survey also found that 50% of respondents reported experiencing discrimination due to being non-monogamous.

The new measure in Seattle was spearheaded with the help of local advocate Jessa Davis, whose partner experienced job discrimination in 2024 due to non-monogamy. Later in 2025, Seattle’s Human Rights Commission wrote an open letter in favour of addressing discrimination “on the basis of family and relationship structure” in order to close “loopholes that currently allow exclusion, harassment, and denial of opportunity to persist unchecked”.

While Seattle’s city code already prohibits housing or employment discrimination based on characteristics like race, homosexuality, immigration status or disability, the new measure extends such protections to polyamory, asexuality and pansexuality.

In particular, it changes the definition of sexual orientation to “recognize genders outside the gender binary, recognize pansexuality and asexuality as orientations, and include consensual relationships with multiple partners as an element of attitudes, preferences, and practices pertaining to sexual orientation.”

The measure also covers multi-parent families, multi-generational households and other diverse family structures. The protections will apply to “employment, housing, business licensure, places of public accommodation, park usage, bias-free policing”.

The city’s Office of Civil Rights is tasked with enforcing the new measure, which is set to go into effect on June 1, 2027.

Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who sponsored the bill, said: “Seattle has long been a leader in recognizing and seeking to protect all of our neighbors’ basic rights.

“This update reflects how people actually live. It ensures that all residents can participate fully in civic, economic and community life without fear of discrimination.”

Co-chair of the Seattle Coalition for Family and Relationship Equity, Tyson Holman, who is polyamorous, shared: “Some of the most painful conversations in my community are about having to hide the people we love, or being the person who is hidden. All of this we do to avoid discrimination.”

Seattle joins a growing number of US cities that have adopted legal protections for polyamory, including Oakland, Berkeley and Portland.