Polyamory

Polyamory is a recently coined word which denotes the concept of "multiple loves". It has been independently coined by several people; one instance was Jennifer Wesp, who created the Usenet newsgroup alt.polyamory in 1992. However, the term has been reported in occasional use in the 1960s.

Polyamory consists in having non-possessive, open relationships with multiple partners. It can include:

open relationships, which involves romantic partnerships that are not sexually exclusive;
polyfidelity, which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to those;
subrelationships, which denote distinguishing between a primary relationship and various secondary relationships;
group relationships or marriage, in which all of the involved parties consider themselves equally associated to one another.

Most practitioners of polyamory consider honesty to be an integral part. "Don't ask, don't tell" is often frowned upon.

Unlike polygamy, polyamory does not necessarily involve marriage, although some polyamorous people are married. Unlike "swinging", polyamorous relationships generally involve an emotional bond. Most monogamous people define fidelity as restricting one's sexual involvement to exactly one sexual partner; most polyamorous people define fidelity as not lying to your partners.

In some areas such as Canada, polyamorous relationships may be technically illegal under bigamy laws. However, there is no known case of a polyamorous family unit being prosecuted under these laws in Canada.