The left-wing city council of Somerville, Massachusetts voted unanimously last week to recognize “polyamorous” relationships, enshrining intimate relationships between multiple people on a level equal to that of traditional heterosexual marriage.

Polyamory is a lifestyle that allows for amorphous and plural intimate sexual relationships between multiple people. It’s been compared to historical practices of polygamy in non-western and peripheral societies, although its advocates and adherents claim their lifestyle is distinct from the shunned and more controversial practice.

City Councilor Lance Davis explained his support for the resolution recognizing polyamory, stating that he “doesn’t feel it’s the place of government to define a family.” The recognition of the plural relationship practice may be the first of its kind from a governmental institution in the United States or modern-day western society.

Another city councilor who supporter recognizing polyamory, J.T. Scott, claimed that he knew at least two dozen polyamorous households throughout the city of Somerville.

The city ordinance will apply employment benefits to all partners of polyamorous relationships who could claim the benefits as a city employee’s spouse.

It appears likely to possible that the initial push in favor of polyamorous recognition will spiral into a newfound cultural struggle on the part of liberal ideologues, determined to enshrine a system similar in nature to medieval or Islamic polygamy within the legal confines of American society in the name of “progress” and “tolerance.”