West Hollywood Opens a Registry for Multi-Partner Domestic Relationships

The City Council unanimously adopted an ordinance letting three or more adults register for local hospital, jail and tenant protections, effective Dec. 2. It does not create a state or federal marriage or domestic partnership.

By Herald Staff · Nov. 5, 2026, 8:15 AM ET

West Hollywood City Hall and a neighboring building with Pride flags under a blue sky, with a Sweetzer Ave and City Hall street sign in the foreground. — West Hollywood City Hall in February 2024. The City Council unanimously adopted a multi-partner domestic relationship registry on Nov. 2; it takes effect Dec. 2. Photo: Jengod (cropped) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (license).

West Hollywood will let three or more adults in a committed relationship register with the city as a multi-partner domestic relationship, extending local hospital, jail and tenant protections that have long been available to two-person domestic partners. The City Council adopted Ordinance No. 26-13 unanimously on Nov. 2, and the new Chapter 2.86 of the municipal code takes effect Dec. 2, NBC Los Angeles reported.

The ordinance, introduced by Mayor John Heilman, creates a registration process through the city clerk for adults who live together and share responsibility for one another's welfare. It is a city recognition only. It does not create a marriage or a California or federal domestic partnership, NBC and LAist both emphasized.

What Registration Confers

Partners who file can claim visitation rights at health care facilities and at jails in the city's jurisdiction, and they gain certain protections tied to rental units, including limits on ending or refusing to renew a lease when a registered partner still occupies the home, the Los Angeles Times reported.

To register, all members of the relationship must appear in person at the City Clerk's office with identification, LAist reported. The ordinance also allows filing by mail if every signature is notarized. Applicants must meet basic conditions set out in the code, including that the relationship is consensual and that the partners are not related by blood, according to the Times.

People who live outside West Hollywood can still register. Advocates say a city-stamped statement can help with school pickups, hospital visits and other paperwork even when another city or institution is not required to honor it, the Times noted.

A Familiar Playbook for West Hollywood

In 1985, West Hollywood became the first city in the country to create a domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples, LAist reported, and outsiders could use that registry too. Councilmember Chelsea Lee Byers called the new ordinance a landmark that "continues to elevate West Hollywood as a city that is here to support queer people and queer families as they evolve in their needs."

The registry follows a March vote that barred discrimination against polyamorous people and directed staff to draft multi-partner registration rules, the Times reported. Byers introduced that antidiscrimination measure and described the protections then as "frankly long overdue."

Christina Fialho, an attorney and founder of the bisexual advocacy group Rewrite the BiLine, first brought the idea to Byers in early 2025. "This law is just the beginning," she told the Times. "I think it makes it possible for people to dream about a future they once thought was out of reach." Speaking to LAist after the vote, she said the ordinance "gives people permission to imagine a future together and to plan their lives openly."

Limits, and a Push for Broader Forms

The adopted language centers on groups of three or more. At the council meeting, West Hollywood librarian Megan Katz, who is married to a nesting partner and also has a partner she does not live with, said that framing does not match how many people practice polyamory. "One of my pet peeves is this popular conception that polyamory is only 'triads' or 'throuples,'" she told the Times. Byers said she would pursue amendments so multiple two-person partnerships can also be registered.

Legal experts told the Times earlier this year that multi-partner families often spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to form corporations and contracts that married couples get by default. "Families are becoming more and more complex," Glendale attorney Alana Chazan of All Family Legal said.

West Hollywood is not alone. Somerville and Cambridge in Massachusetts were among the first cities to let multi-partner relationships register, and Berkeley, Oakland, Portland, Astoria and Olympia, Wash., have advanced related protections, the Times reported.

Registration opens after the Dec. 2 effective date. Details and forms will come from the West Hollywood City Clerk.

Original reporting by The Los Angeles Herald, drawing on the City of West Hollywood, NBC Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times and LAist, as linked above.