Share your story: Personal experiences help illustrate why these protections matter. If you’ve experienced stigma or discrimination on the basis of your non-monogamous identity in Portland, add this to the bottom of the letter!

Letter to Sponsors

[Date]

[Councilor Name]
Portland City Council
1221 SW 4th Avenue
Portland, OR 97204

Dear Councilor _______________,

Thank you for championing Family and Relationship Structure protections. I am writing to express my strong support for the proposed ordinance to add "family or relationship structure" as a protected class in Portland's existing non-discrimination laws. This vital legislation would ensure that all Portland residents have equal access to housing, employment, and public accommodations, regardless of how they structure their families or consensual relationships.

I am concerned with the current language and encourage the reintroduction of the definition for Intimate personal relationship, which is critical to explicitly protecting folks in expansive families and relationships.  

Lawyers at the Polylamory Legal Advocacy Coalition explain the importance of enumeration:

In general, enumeration supports explicit interpretation of the law that would not otherwise be possible. Explicit interpretation in turn helps two groups of people: the general public and the judiciary. 

Explicit interpretation though enumeration helps the general public know exactly how to act under the law. When terms are defined, we know which behaviors are explicitly prohibited (discrimination against families with more than two partners / parents) and which behaviors are explicitly protected (seeking protection from discrimination as a family with more than two partners / parents). Without enumeration, the public would not understand how to follow the law, nor how the law protects us. 

The second group that is supported by explicit interpretation via enumeration is the judiciary. Through textualist analysis, courts would be obligated to give recognition of those enumerated identities so long as they’re actually presented in the statute, whereas they would not necessarily interpret the sentence as currently written as reaching some of them (including families with more than two partners / parents). Enumeration therefore ensures protection for the most marginalized or minority types of relationships that courts may otherwise fail to recognize based on their own biases or legal interpretation of the statute.

Here's a good primer on why enumeration is important in a slightly different context. I hope this is helpful! https://rlas.pire.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/GLSEN-What-is-Enumeration.pdf 

I urge you to introduce an amendment to reintroduce this language into the bill. Vague wording will only hurt people. Without this, people will still fear being fired for their relationship structure, be denied housing because of their family structure, and legally discriminated against in society.

Thank you again for championing this important policy. 

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[Your Phone Number]
[Your Email]