Well, it's official. Polyamory has hit the mainstream. Newsweek just released an article about the growing trend of "nonmongamy" this week, noting that researchers are just beginning to study the phenomenon, and estimating the openly polyamorous families in the United States number at more than half a million. The note books like Open, by journalist Jenny Block; Opening Up, by sex columnist Tristan Taormino; and an updated version of The Ethical Slut—widely considered the modern "poly" Bible—having helped publicize the concept.

The article provides a balanced report about the emerging trend, including legal precedents - like custody battles, how children fare - research shows that children can do well in poly families, as long as they're in a stable home with loving parents, and even how polyamory is beginning to show up on the radar screen of the religious right. Fundamentalist leaders have publicly condemned polyamory as one of a host of deviant behaviors sure to become normalized if gay marriage wins federal sanction. "This group is really rising up from the underground, emboldened by the success of the gay-marriage movement," says Glenn Stanton, the director of family studies for Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian group.

The article closes on a positive note:

It's a new paradigm, certainly—and it does break some rules. "Polyamory scares people—it shakes up their world view," says Allena Gabosch, the director of the Seattle-based Center for Sex Positive Culture. But perhaps the practice is more natural than we think: a response to the challenges of monogamous relationships, whose shortcomings—in a culture where divorce has become a commonplace—are clear. Everyone in a relationship wrestles at some point with an eternal question: can one person really satisfy every need? Polyamorists think the answer is obvious—and that it's only a matter of time before the monogamous world sees there's more than one way to live and love.

However, reaction by the fundamentalist religious right has been predictable. In an article about this Newsweek article in the Christian Post, Albert Mohler, the author, laments, "Once marriage is redefined to allow for same-sex unions, any determination to maintain legal prohibitions against polygamy will be seen as merely arbitrary... The ultimate sign of our moral confusion becomes evident when virtually no one appears ready to condemn polyamory as immoral. The only arguments mustered against this new movement focus on matters of practicality. Polyamory is certainly not new, but this new movement is yet another reminder that virtually all the fences are now down when it comes to sex and sexual relationships. What comes next?"

Please comment with your thoughts about what comes next!
 

See: Newsweek: Polyamory has a Coming Out Party
See: Christian Post: The Perfectly Plural Postmodern Condition