DIANA ADAMS: TED TALK

November 2023: Spiegel (Germany)

How love works in threes, fours or fives

In the US city of Somerville, many polyamorous people live and love in new relationship models. Here, three households talk about their everyday lives between freedom and scheduling, cohesion and jealousy. 

November 2023: Gay Community News (GCN) Ireland

Why polyamorous families need more legal rights

There are plenty of laws that protect heteronormative family structures, but polyamorous families need laws to recognise their partnerships and protect them from discrimination. 

October 2023: Asahi Shimbun (Japan)

All families are not the same. Three or four parents? Family shapes are expanding in America　

Diana Adams was intereviewed and featured for this article in one of Japan's largest newspapers.

July 2023:  Vanity Fair

Love, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Polyamory: A Look Under the Covers of Nonmonogamy and Its Burgeoning Civil Rights Battle

Caroline Giuliani wrote this beautifully comprehensive piece for Vanity Fair in July 2023  highlighting the work of Diana Adams and others in the movement to destigmatize polyamory and establish rights+protections for poly families.

JUNE 2023: Watch Diana Adams address European Parliament in Madrid 

Diana Adams was invited to present in-person at the Madrid Summit's International Conference on Human Rights, hosted by the European Parliament and EU Human Rights Commission in Madrid (Summer 2023). They spoke during a panel called "Legal Tools & Strategic Litigation for Protecting LGBTQIA+ Rights."

Click HERE to watch their talk, which starts at 5:31:30.

June 2023: SOLO with Peter McGraw

Peter McGraw speaks to Diana Adams, the founder of the Chosen Family Law Center, Inc. and boutique LGBTQ family law and mediation firm Diana Adams Law & Mediation, PLLC. Both organizations serve primarily same-sex couples and non-nuclear families. Diana’s incredible TED talk “Why US laws must expand beyond the nuclear family” serves as the basis for the conversation. They suggest that, although the nuclear family model may no longer be the norm in the US. It’s still the basis for social and economic benefits like health care, tax breaks, and citizenship. Diana contends that all families, regardless of biological relationship or legal marriage, are deserving of equal legal rights and recognition.  Peter and Diana have a wide-ranging conversation that includes how Solos are affected by these laws – and present a call to action for aging Solos. LISTEN HERE

May 2023: The New York Times

Interested in Polyamory? Check Out These Places

Laws granting rights to people in polyamorous relationships are being recognized in more cities. 

"In late March, Somerville passed two more laws extending the rights of nonmonogamous residents, this time banning discrimination on the basis of “family or relationship structure” in city employment and policing . . .  After Somerville passed its domestic partnership law, Arlington and Cambridge, two other cities in Massachusetts, added polyamorous units to their existing domestic partnership ordinances. But once people register as domestic partners there, benefits may extend beyond Massachusetts as well: “So people around the country are able to come get registered and go home to generally use it as they would any other domestic partnership they registered for in their home city or anywhere,” Diana Adams."

March 2023:  Boston Globe

Somerville celebrates another first for polyamorous people

"The Massachusetts-based Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition helped draft the language for the legislation in these communities . . . Adams, whose New York City-based organization oversees the Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition, said the legislation will have a ripple effect. Adams said they know people outside of Massachusetts who, following the 2020 ordinance, registered with multiple partners in Somerville and have used the designation to get health insurance for a partner back home. Adams said policies on a municipal level can be the start of big change. That was one of the lessons of the same-sex partnership movement, they said; that once you can put your partner and family on paper, “that really helps change social attitudes.”

March 2023:  INSIDER 

2 married couples divorced so they could become a polyamorous foursome 

"These kinds of laws create a mindset shift" in communities, workplaces, and families, Diana Adams, Wright's lawyer and the executive director of the Chosen Family Law Center, told Insider. "It's a seal of approval from the government that this is something that's legitimate and should be respected."    

January 2023:  The Economist

Polyamory is getting slivers of legal recognition in America

"...In October they held a commitment ceremony resembling a wedding …The arrangement has no legal weight as a marriage: every state bans bigamy or polygamy. So they signed a “no-nup”: a contract outlining alimony and child-care responsibilities in the event of a break-up or death among partners who were never legally married. Their lawyer, Diana Adams, notarised it with a “lovely stamp that goes ker-chunk”. 

December 2022:  Washington Post

“LGBTQ people respond to Respect for Marriage Act”

"Is it perfect?  No."

Diana Adams shares concerns about Respect for Marriage Act passed in Nov 2022 - a necessary stop gap but dangerous potential expansion of religious freedom exemptions to marriage. Civil rights shouldn't have exemptions. 

Note that this article is behind a paywall.

April 2022: TED Radio Hour

How can we provide better care for non-traditional families?

For LGBTQIA and non-nuclear families, navigating the legal system and family benefits is difficult. Attorney Diana Adams says we need more inclusive laws that cater to all chosen families.

March 22, 2021: The New Yorker: "How Polyamorists and Polygamists Are Challenging Family Norms"

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/22/how-polyamorists-and-polygamists-are-challenging-family-norms

From opposite sides of the culture, parallel campaigns for legal recognition may soon make multiple-partner marriages as unremarkable as same-sex marriages. This New Yorker article by Andrew Solomon features our Senior Associate Attorney Andy Izenson and their family.

September 22, 2020:  The Atlantic 

Diana Adams is not only the founder and Principal Attorney at Diana Adams Law & Mediation, PLLC, they are also the founder and Executive Director of the not-for-profit Chosen Family Law Center. Diana was interviewed by The Atlantic about their work at CFLC for this article on 3-parent families: 

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/09/how-build-three-parent-family-david-jay/616421/

July 30, 2020:  Georgia Public Broadcasting (PBS/NPR)

Senior Associate Attorney Andy Izenson discusses legal implications of X Markers for nonbinary clients:   

Nonbinary Georgians Raise Concerns, Questions As Other States Offer Legal Recognition

https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/07/30/nonbinary-georgians-raise-concerns-questions-other-states-offer-legal-recognition 

July 23, 2020: Psychology Today

Legal Protections for People in Polyamorous Relationships

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-polyamorists-next-door/202007/legal-protections-people-in-polyamorous-relationships 

"During her decades serving as a legal advocate for families of sex and gender minorities, Adams has witnessed what the lack of legal protections can do to families who are left vulnerable to stigma and discrimination. “All families deserve the support of legal stability and recognition, including the many polyamorous partners among our clients and communities. Many in polyamorous relationships will now benefit from health insurance coverage through their partners, which is essential especially in these times of COVID-19. Ultimately, we shouldn't need to depend upon our employers or relationships for health insurance, but while that is our American system, those in polyamorous relationships shouldn't lack health insurance coverage because some disapprove of their relationship configuration.”

While this small step towards legal protection is enforceable only within a highly localized area, it is nevertheless significant. When cities enact ordinances such as these at the local level, it can serve to inspire others to consider and perhaps even craft similar protections of their citizens. Adams concludes, “At Chosen Family Law Center, we plan to introduce similar domestic partnership ordinances in progressive cities, and welcome local advocates to get in touch for support and collaboration. Somerville is just the beginning of a movement for partnership protections for polyamorous and multi-parent families.”

July 1, 2020:  New York Times

Our Senior Associate Attorney Andy Izenson, who is also Senior Legal Director for Chosen Family Law Center, was interviewed by the NYT regarding the Somerville, MA Poly Families ordinance:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/us/somerville-polyamorous-domestic-partnership.html 

"Andy Izenson, a lawyer with the Chosen Family Law Center, a nonprofit organization that provides legal services to polyamorous and other nontraditional families, said the ordinance could be put to a judicial test if health insurance companies reject the city’s more expansive definition of domestic partnership. It could also run into resistance from conservatives, as same-sex marriage did in 2015.

Or it could, as he put it, “fly under the radar.”

“When one area does it, and it serves as a test case, and legislators see that the town or county has not had a culture war implosion,” he said, “that’s how things spread.”

July 1, 2020: Wicked Local on the Sommerville, MA Poly Families Ordinance

 https://somerville.wickedlocal.com/news/20200701/somerville-recognizes-polyamorous-domestic-partnerships “I think it’s pretty amazing – strategies like this are the best chance we have of moving towards a legal understanding of family that’s as comprehensive as it needs to be to serve all families,” said Izenson. “I’ve seen a few other small-scale or local entities that have taken steps towards recognizing that relationships between adults are not only between two adults, but this is the first time I have seen this strategy brought to fruition.” Izenson noted states recognizing third-parent adoptions as action that is close to offering broader rights to families, but pointed out that most gains in “marriage equality” have all been carefully defined as between two people.“ There’s a reflexive flinch away from families including more than two partners,” they said.

SAVAGE LOVE: Diana has been a guest on Dan Savage’s “Savage Love” podcast several times:

May 19,2020:  "IT'S NOT EASY BEING POLY... "

On this Savage Lovecast Magnum, Dan Savage & Diana had a lively talk about polyamory challenges during the pandemic! Hierarchy pain as some partners are in/some out for quarantine, strategies for being in a rough roommate situation with an ex, & as usual, a smackdown on dishonesty in 'ethical' nonmonogamy! 

https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/708 

April 14, 2015: “IT'S POLY COCKTAIL TIME!”

https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/442#.XJjQLNFG2Rs

September 30, 2014:  “WHAT DOES ANN LANDERS' DAUGHTER THINK ABOUT TANTRIC SEX?” https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/414#.XJjQZdFG2Rs

April 1, 2014:  “DAD, WHOSE PANTIES ARE THESE?”

https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/388#.XJjQeNFG2Rs

January 7, 2014:  “DO EX-GIRLFRIENDS MAKE GOOD UNICORNS?”

https://www.savagelovecast.com/episodes/376#.XJjQhtFG2Rs

October 24, 2019:  CBS News

Diana was interviewed about our legal practice as part of a CBSN Originals 23-minute documentary on consensually non-monogamous partnerships and families: Speaking Frankly: Non-monogamy.  

Following that, Diana had a one-on-one interview with CBS news anchor Tanya Rivero to more fully discuss the challenges for non-monogamous and LGBTQ+ families, including child custody, immigration and health insurance. You can view that interview here: Diana Adams on “Legal Hurdles in Non-Monogamous Relationships”.