California cities seek to bless polyamorous unions. Lawyers warn it will get messy in court
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Nurses raced around Chloe, prepping the Oakland mother-to-be for a caesarean.One minute, she’d been in the bathroom, laboring through a contraction.
The next, she was being rushed into emergency surgery, her daughter’s heart rate dropping precipitously on the fetal monitor.The new mom, who asked that she and her family be identified only by their first names out of fear they could be targeted for the unconventional way they’re raising their daughter, said her doctors had known for weeks that she would probably end up with a surgical birth.
Yet because of their uncommon family structure, it wasn’t until just minutes before the obstetrician cut into her belly that the father of her child got permission to go with her into the operating room.“They were changing shifts so we couldn’t get the right doctor,” Chloe said.
“They said it was up to the anesthesiologist on the day of the surgery to agree to having two people there.” Chloe is polyamorous.By the time of her delivery last year, she and her partners Silvia and Fausto had already endured a medical and legal odyssey in their quest to expand their family.
Polyamory is nothing new in California, and certainly not in Oakland, which in 2024 became the first city in the state to outlaw discrimination based on family structure — a move meant in part to protect multiple partners’ rights to manage a medical emergency in the hospital.California The outcome Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court is potentially precedent-setting for thousands of other pending lawsuits nationwide and could reshape how tech companies are held accountable for children’s harm caused by their products.Last month, West Hollywood passed an ordinance seeking to become the first city in California and one of just a handful across the country to offer domestic partnerships to poly groups.
But for now, many families still face lega...