Polyamory

Polyamory is the practice or lifestyle of being part of more than one long-term, intimate, and (usually but not necessarily) sexual loving relationship at the same time, with the full knowledge and consent of all partners involved. Persons who consider themselves emotionally suited to such relationships may define themselves as polyamorous, often abbreviated to poly.

Forms of polyamory

Forms of polyamory include:

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• Polyfidelity, which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to specific partners in a group.
• Sub-relationships, which distinguish between "primary" and "secondary" relationships (e.g. most open marriages).
• Polygamy (polygyny and polyandry), in which one person marries several spouses (who may or may not be married to or have a romantic relationship with one another).
• Group relationships and group marriage, in which all consider themselves equally associated to one another, popularized to some extent by Robert Heinlein (in novels such as Stranger in a Strange Land and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), by Robert Rimmer and also by the author Starhawk in her books The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993) and Walking to Mercury (1997).
• Networks of interconnecting relationships, where a particular person may have relationships of varying degrees of importance with various people.
• Mono/poly relationships where one partner is monogamous but agrees to the other having outside relationships.
• So-called "geometric" arrangements, which are described by the number of people involved and their relationship connections. Examples include "triads" and "quads", along with "V" and "N" geometries. The connecting member of a V relationship is sometimes referred to as a "hinge" or "pivot", and the partners thereby indirectly connected are referred to as the "arms". The arm partners are not as closely bonded to each other as each arm partner is to the pivot. This can be contrasted with a "triangle", in which all partners are directly connected and all are bonded to each other with comparable strength. A triad could be either a V or a triangle.

Some people in sexually exclusive relationships may still self-describe as polyamorous, if they have significant emotional ties to more than one other person. Additionally, people who self-describe as polyamorous, may accept monogamous relationships with specific partners, either because this is the negotiated agreement, or because with that partner monogamy feels 'right' (whereas for a different partner perhaps it would not be needed).

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'Open relationship'

Open relationship denotes a relationship (usually between two people) in which participants are free to take other partners; where the couple making this agreement are married, it is an open marriage. 'Open relationship' and 'polyamorous' are not identical terms, broadly "open" usually refers to the sexual aspect of a non-closed relationship, whereas polyamory refers to the extension of a relationship by allowing bonds to form (which may be sexual or otherwise) as additional long term relationships:

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• Some relationships place strict restrictions on partners (e.g. polyfidelity); such relationships are polyamorous, but not open.
• Some relationships permit sex outside the primary relationship, but not love (cf swinging); such relationships are open, but not polyamorous.
• Some polyamorists do not accept the dichotomies of "in a relationship/not in a relationship" and "partners/not partners"; without these divisions, it is meaningless to class a relationship as 'open' and 'closed'.
• Some polyamorists consider 'polyamory' to be their philosophical orientation -- they believe themselves capable and desirous of multiple loves -- whereas 'open relationship' is used as a logistical description: that is, it is how their polyamory is expressed or implemented. They would say of themselves, for instance, "I am polyamorous; my primary partner and I have an open relationship (with the following ground rules)...."

However, there is enough overlap between the two concepts that 'open relationship' is sometimes used as a catch-all substitute when speaking to people who may not be familiar with 'polyamory'.

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Several other forms of nonmonogamous relationship are listed at poly relationship.

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