Legalization of Polygamy in America

Right, that's the distinction I'm making. There's having multiple partners, and then there's having multiple partners in a committed, trusting setting, and given that there's a generic word (meaning perhaps "many loves"), it seems odd to restrict the meaning. Like you can only have many loves if you're in the club.

But that's just me, and you get the point, so we're there.

Robear wrote:

Right, that's the distinction I'm making. There's having multiple partners, and then there's having multiple partners in a committed, trusting setting, and given that there's a generic word (meaning perhaps "many loves"), it seems odd to restrict the meaning. Like you can only have many loves if you're in the club.

But that's just me, and you get the point, so we're there.

Sure--I'd just say it's not the generic word, even though if you're super-technical about the roots, it would be. Like in your edit:

Edit - Let's see if I can put it baldly. Can you convince me that a person who is married to one person and in a long-term sexual, loving relationship with a different person, absent the knowledge of the spouse - that is, someone who is committing adultery - is *not* a person who has more than one loving, sexual relationship at a time?

If there's a better word that encompasses *all* multiple partner relationships, I'm happy to use it. But right now, it looks to me like polyamory is it.

If we use the word "polyamory" to describe all multiple partner relationships, then we'll just have to find another word to describe non-adulterous multiple partner relationships, like "multiphilia" or something.

Seems like a lot of work to end up right back in the same spot.

I think the language structures we're working with in English are complicating the conversation. Adultery is having multiple committed partners, but it's also just having a lot of sex with a lot of people indiscriminately. Those are both "adultery," though I'm not sure they're both polyamory.

For the record, I'm against indiscriminate sexual partnering. It's a fairly significant personal health risk and is a public health issue.

I think it's the idea of moving towards understanding sexuality as a personal matter in which we all socialize (or not) with other humans and neither as a property exchange nor inherently a moral issue that complicates the conversation.