Facebook is a social media source of influence. Through it, acceptance for many different types of people and groups, including the LGBTQA+ community has spread more rapidly than before we had internet and social media. These progressions have helped lesson stigmas and stereotypes against these groups and have helped the government rethink about laws against our rights. Same sex marriages are finally legal and minority groups are now protected from discrimination at their jobs. 

Unfortunately, there are still some groups of people who still face stereotypes and stigmas and do not have legal protections. A great example is polyamory. 

Polyamory is having 2 or more intimate partners at the same time. Contrary to what people understand, this can be both a lifestyle and an orientation.

People may choose this lifestyle if their partner is polyamorous, or they may join out of curiosity and exploration, or they may try it and just end up liking it.

There are people, however, who are polyamorous oriented. Just like a gay man cannot date a woman, a polyamorous person cannot live a monogamous lifestyle. It's not a choice. We will remain polyamorous, whether we are single, in a monogamous relationship, or in a polyamorous relationship. In this sense, polyamory is an identity. If you've never heard of monogamy, it is when a romantic relationship only consists of two people and it is the standard relationship in places like the US. 

A polyamorous oriented person feels uncomfortable in a monogamous relationship and feels it's controlling. They can fall in love with multiple people at the same time and prefer to work through jealous emotions if they have jealousy (some experience jealousy and others don't, depending on the person). 

It is important to note that polyamory is consensual between everyone in the relationship and everyone in the relationship must know that their partner or partners are dating other people as well. Not consenting is abuse and not knowing is cheating. It is possible to cheat in polyamory. Polyamory itself is not cheating.

Unlike the suggested stereotypes, polyamorous people can have long lasting and committed relationships with their partner or partners. 

Sadly, polyamorous people are not legally protected. Marriage between 3 or more people is called polygamy and in the US, polygamy is illegal in all 50 states. The government is allowed to take away children from a polyamorous household. Partners can't visit each other in hospitals during emergency situations. People can get fired from jobs if they are polyamorous and the government is okay with this. Many other rights aren't given because we are not a protected group. This is no different from how we once treated many people in the LGBTQA+ community. Changes need to be made.

On a more personal level, I am polyamorous oriented, and am happily committed to my two boyfriends, whom I love both so much! So I've been like this every since I understood what a crush was. That was middle school, so yes, childhood. I never chose to be this way. I've never felt jealousy with my crushes or relationships, I've been able to fall in love with multiple people at the same time, and I have difficulty choosing because I feel like society is telling me to choose "who's better, who would I love more, and who is unworthy and not good enough for me?" I don't like this decision. It feels selfish and unnatural to me. I feel more compersion, which means that I feel happiness from seeing my partner or crush happy, when if I'm not the source of happiness. This isn't to say that monogamy is bad or that it's bad to be monogamous. It just means that I, personally am polyamorous oriented. There are groups of people like me, so I know I'm not alone. We need to normalize polyamory. We are not bad people, we are just different. It doesn't just hurt me, it also hurts anyone like me who can't be themselves. It also hurts children and families who are legally torn apart from each other or can't receive an income for just being themselves.

Facebook can do this. Facebook has the power to help start circulating this change. If a huge social media site can support this, as they have supported LGBTQA+ in the past and now, then they can help people learn acceptance. 

How can Facebook do this? If Meta (the company that owns Facebook) allowed polyamory to be a relationship status and allowed us to add multiple people to the status, polyamorous people could share their relationship status like everyone else and come out to friends and family much easier. I'm aware their is already "open relationship" status and "complicated relationship," status, but these are not the same things as polyamory. An open relationship is more like a primary couple deciding to have more casual dating with other people, so Facebook only allows one partner as a status. This isn't polyamory because polyamory is about having two or more partners, generally at an equal level and the relationship is equal commitment to each person, so it's not casual dating or sex. A polyamorous relationship is also not complicated, it is just having multiple partners at the same time and the status of "complicated relationship" implies that there is a problem in the relationship, but polyamory is not a problem. Marking a status as "in a relationship" sounds more monogamous and Facebook still only gives the option of adding only one person in the relationship. 

This petition is to gather up signatures to show Meta that people do, in fact, care about this and that the request for changing the relationship status to more inclusivity is very important.

If you think that polyamorous people should be heard, need more acceptance, and that Facebook should add polyamory and multiple partners as a relationship status, please stand with me and other people who are like me and sign this petition.