I know a few stable triads, a couple of stable quads, a triad that became a quad after about ten years and two couples about two years after that, and a household that I don't quite know how to characterize but is closer to a line marriage than to any other relationship model I know of. As far as I know, all of them want legal protections that reflect the reality of their relationships. Some of them pursue that on their own, with lawyers; others of them shrug their shoulders and do without those protections. One of the stable quads presents as two married couples.
What qualifies as "stable"? How many years have they been together?
A thought occurred to me today as I skimmed an article in a rationality forum where the subject of gay marriage cropped up; seeing as the issue has been hotly contested in various public fora and especially the courts, what about poly? After all, many if not all the arguments for gay marriage apply to poly marriage as well.
Questions for LWers who are currently in a such a relationship, or have an opinion to share:
Do polies want to marry each other or do such relationships not lend themselves to permanence above a threshold of partners? Should polies campaign for the right for a civil union anyway? what are the up and down sides of this? etc