Facebook urged to recognise three-way relationships and marriages
Facebook has been urged to shake up its relationship system to allow users to date more than one person.
The social media giant’s current system only allows users to signify that they are in a relationship with one other person.
The site currently has options for people who are married, in a civil union, in a domestic partnership, separated or in an open relationship.
The options stop users from being in a relationship with two people at once – forcing them to remove their existing relationship to add a new one.
However, a growing number of people are in polyamorous relationships, involving three or more people – and have no way to reflect all their relationships.
Activist Philly Cashion started a petition on the issue, which has attracted more than 2,500 signatures to date.
It reads: “I’m in a ‘non-traditional relationship’. I’m with my best friends. The three of us are very happy.
“We can’t all get married in the UK. We would like to but such things are illegal. We are going around this by having a hand-fasting.
“What would be nice however is to have it on our profiles; people use the relationship option for many things from friends to married people.
“This is fun and good, but as Facebook seems stuck in the idea that a relationship only involves two people… It cuts one of us off.
“This may seem silly to some people, but to me it’s another way of being told our relationship isn’t real.”
The petition continues: “There are many times this comes up: legally, mortgages, marriages, anything where people benefit from marriage, and considering the recent push to allow gay marriage, it is important. I doubt polyamorous marriages will be allowed any time soon although we would love that.
“The three of us are equal but we are constantly faced with the idea that one of us is an add-on. This simply isn’t true.
“We are a Triad, a Throuple, a Triumvirate.
“A small step for recognition would be if Facebook opened its relationship linking function. Instead of two, make it three or four or any number the people involved care to choose.
“It wouldn’t change much, and it wouldn’t be hard. It would be progressive and inclusive. Two things Facebook claims it is.”
A trio of gay men in Canada recently opened up about their three-way relationship – and caused a storm by saying they plan to marry and have kids together.
The Nova Scotia threesome have been living together since 2012 – but they didn’t feel right with just two of them being married.
They said: “We want to make sure that we’re all equally bound and obligated to each other in marriage.”
