Three Reasons why allowing users to self -designate their relationship status is a social imperative.

1.  Relationships will then be defined by the people in them.  
2.  Facebook remains at the cutting edge of a cultural revolution.
3.  It helps legitimize polyamorous and other non-monogamous lifestyles.

Let’s break it down...
1. Have you noticed all the data in the "About You" section of Facebook is self designated? We can “write in” where we were born, have visited, lived, what we do and where we work but NOT our FAMILY & RELATIONSHIP. Why should we be limited to their standard options of what our relationships are ‘supposed’ to look like?  

Currently, Facebook only offers 12 official options for relationship status:

Single, Married, In a relationship, In an open relationship, engaged, civil union, domestic partnership, it's complicated, separated, divorced, and widowed. Which is fine, but where does that leave those of us who fall outside standard monogamous paradigm?

Such as: Polyamorous, celibate, in a group marriage, triad, quad, quints, pods, living together, long distance relationship, co-parenting, practicing free love, solo-poly, polygamous, in a Master/Slave contract...just to name a few other types of non-monogamous relationships.

Recently, Psychology Today estimated that 9.8 million people in the US have participated in some form of ethical non-monogamy. It’s commonly estimated that approximately 5 percent of Americans are in some form of open relationship. Contrast this with the Transgender population which is estimated under .5%.

Why does Facebook offer a long laundry list of over 50 choices beyond binary gender identity, AND allows us to write-in our own description, but limits our Relationship possibilities to only 12?

2. There is a pop culture phenomenon happening in world-wide relationships, where they are not considered official unless they are “Facebook official.” People's personal lives are deeply impacted by what they are able to share (or not) with their online communities. Visibility is what causes social change, and by not allowing certain alternative cultures to express themselves openly on public forums, it forces people into the closet.  If Facebook will open this function, it will be leading the way for a cultural revolution towards more acceptance and diversity.

3. The standard option, "In an open relationship" is insufficient to describe many non-monogamous relationships. For starters, it is singular. Which goes against the very heart of loving many. Next, what if you are in committed relationships with more than one person but CLOSED to adding any new partners? Many people see open relationship and they assume it is non-commitment, or has no boundaries. Others  use it to mean they have given their partner a hall pass, they are Monogamish, curious and experimenting...You get the idea.

Polyamory is an emergent new subculture which is rapidly growing and widely misunderstood. Most polyamorous people are capable of deep long term commitment to MORE than one person. In fact, the majority of polyamorous people reject the idea of hierarchy, and don't like the idea of primary and secondaries because it doesn't honor the differences of each unique relationship.

Which is why it is also important that under the relationship status function, we be granted the option to tag multiple partners. Without this, most polyamorous people are thrown into a deep dilemma: how do you pick one partner over another to be your "official" relationship. Many poly people choose not to list anyone so they don't hurt another lovers feelings, while I know others who periodically switch which partner they chose to list. It can be devastating for people who are in life partnerships which are not legitimized because they feel left out. It's time for non-monogamous people to be open and honest and proudly announce the names of those with whom we are co-creating our lives.

Please sign this petition TODAY if you want Facebook to 1) Allow us to “write-in” our own relationship style and 2) Change the relationship status function to link to more than one partner (just as it does for other family members.)

And finally, please help spread the love by SHARING on social media. (Feel free to copy and paste any of the points from above and re-post on your page.)  
Thank you, 
KD
KamalaDevi McClure is a mother, artist & activist. Her family stars in Showtime’s hit documentary series, Polyamory: Married and Dating. She just published her 4th book, Polyamory Pearls!