Three men in Colombia just became the country's first legally recognized polyamorous family, in a partnership known as "trieja."
Víctor Hugo Prada, John Alejandro Rodríguez, and Manuel José Bermúdez — an actor, sports instructor, and journalist, respectively — signed papers in a notary office on June 3, in what reports are calling the first polyamorous marriage in Colombia.
"We intend to validate our home, our family, our Constitution and our rights, because we had nothing solid legal to make us a family," Hugo Prada said in a video about their marriage, according to Colombian radio station LAFM.
#HistoriasNoContadas Nos hacen noticia o hacemos noticia, en Común, sobre la comunicación Comunitaria, EN MODO PAZ pic.twitter.com/Bn01Ygt0I5
— Manuel José Bermúdez (@comunicadorCiud) June 29, 2016
The three men met in 2012 and have since shared their lives with each other, including their "time, money, spaces, and sexuality," according to LAFM.
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Their relationship certainly isn't the first or only polyamorous family in Colombia, but it is the first to be recognized by law and therefore granted the rights other legal families in the country are afforded.
@BluRadioCo Ya es un hecho, primera relación de poliamor -trieja- legalizada ante notario en Colombia y tercera en el mundo pic.twitter.com/7EX4ifFWwK
— Manuel José Bermúdez (@comunicadorCiud) June 9, 2017
Though it may be a first for Colombia, other poly trios have had legal marriages elsewhere in the world. Three gay men got married in Thailand in 2015, according to the New York Post.
And as many LGBTQ couples did before same-gender marriage was legal in the United States, some people in polyamorous relationships celebrate their love through commitment ceremonies. Those unions are not legal, and don't award the relationships any extra rights, but do allow polyamorous people who love each other to be married in their eyes and in the eyes of their families and friends.
As of now, marriage that involves more than two people is not legal in the United States, though some statistics show that as many as 5% of Americans practices some form of ethical non-monogomy.
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