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An eviction case in New York has scored a new legal victory in a ruling for polyamorous rights in the state.
This week, New York Civil Court Judge Karen May Bacdayan ruled in favor of a polyamorous man who was at risk of being evicted from his New York City apartment.
The case of West 49th St., LLC v. O’Neill involved Scott Anderson and Markyus O’Neill, who lived together in the apartment. Anderson held the lease, but was married to another man, Robert Romano, who lived at a different address, according to LGBT Nation.
Sadly, after Anderson died, the building owner tried to kick O’Neill out. Officials from the apartment building argued that O’Neill had no right to renew the lease because he was a “roommate” and not a “non-traditional family member.” However, Judge Bacdayan ruled in favor of O’Neill noting that, regardless of his relationship status, he had the same right to legal protections given to two person relationships.
Laws are beginning to recognize polyamorous relationships
In her ruling, Bacdayan pointed to how new laws are beginning to recognize polyamorous couples, like in 2020, when officials from Somerville, Massachusetts, “passed an ordinance allowing groups of three or more people who ‘consider themselves to be a family’ to be recognized as domestic partners.” That same year, Cambridge a neighboring town, also passed a similar ordinance recognizing multi-partner relationships.
“The law has proceeded even more rapidly in recognizing that it is possible for a child to have more than two legal parents,” she continued. “Why then, except for the very real possibility of implicit majoritarian animus, is the limitation of two persons inserted into the definition of a family-like relationship for the purposes of receiving the same protections from eviction accorded to legally formalized or blood relationships?” the judge questioned. Is ‘two’ a ‘code word’ for monogamy? Why does a person have to be committed to one other person in only certain prescribed ways in order to enjoy stability in housing after the departure of a loved one?”
The judge closed her statement by pondering whether it was time for the Supreme Court to include new legal protections in the Fourteenth Amendment to recognize and honor non-traditional forms of relationships outside of heterosexual and same sex marriages.
“Those decisions, however, open the door for consideration of other relational constructs; and, perhaps, the time has arrived,” Bacdayan said, citing a passage from Justice John Roberts’ Obergefell dissent,” The New York Post noted.
What do you think about polyamorous rights? Sound off in the comment section.
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