Hello Loving Without Boundaries Community!
A throuple’s cuddly toothbrushes as portrayed in The Wall Street Journal, January 2024
Wow! What a ride! It is with great jubilation that I am delighted to share that I was recently interviewed by a reporter for “The Wall Street Journal”, Elizabeth Bernstein. The piece she wrote, entitled “Polyamory: Lots of Sex, Even More Scheduling (Open relationships are having a moment. Who has time for this?” was featured in print exactly one week ago today, Wednesday, January 24 (ironically with Trump featured on the cover, “above the fold” as we say in the advertising business). Also, the piece went live online on Monday, January 22nd at 9pm ET.
This was an amazing adventure for both myself, as well as my two full-time nesting partners. You see, I have been practicing some form of consensual non-monogamy for just about two decades, which is how long I have been with my husband. When this went live, we were celebrating our Engage-A-Versary in Paris, France, as he had asked me to marry him on the Eiffel Tower exactly eighteen years ago, January 22nd. When we got married later that year, we wrote our own vows, leaving out the “forsaking all others” bit, as we knew we wanted a different type of relationship structure other than strict monogamy. Fast forward two decades later, and I now also live with my other nesting partner of eight plus years, in a V-style configuration with our polyamorous household. Yes, they both have other partners as well (we often get asked that).
While my husband and I were in magnificent and romantic Paris, my nesting partner back home was speaking to Elizabeth so that she could fact-check my story that I gave her during an over hour long interview shortly before I left on my trip. I found out that very morning that later that day, we would be conducting the interview, which was quite a lively and at times hilarious conversation. We spoke about upcoming Valentine’s Day plans, what are the benefits and challenges of living a polyamorous life, how does one find “me-time” in a polyamorous multi-adult household (not losing oneself and taking much-needed space when needed), who sleeps where (folks are always fascinated by this), as well as how my journey led me to have a beautiful and highly rewarding alternative relationship coaching business.
Elizabeth is truly a dear, and we found we had much in common that surprised us. On our actual anniversary, I gave the phone to my husband as we were at a restaurant by the Eiffel Tower so she could also fact-check with him as well. Literally hours later, we saw the piece online. AMAZING!
GRATITUDE & APPRECIATION
I am deeply honored and grateful for this opportunity to share our Loving Without Boundaries mission and message. Our goal here, since December of 2012 (that’s over eleven years now, and going strong!) is to create more awareness, acceptance, and understanding surrounding those who choose to step off the “relationship escalator”, and want to build families and relationships in a way that works for them, from a lens of self-determination, self-actualization, and most importantly, self-love. We strive to help reduce the stigma, misunderstanding, ridicule, and ignorance surrounding alternative relationship structures, such as polyamory, open relationships, and relationship anarchy (RA). We also deeply support minority communities striving to live their most authentic lives in the LGBTQ+ communities.
I am also honored to be featured in this piece alongside colleagues that I deeply respect, such as Amy Moors, co-chair of the APA Division 44 Committee on Consensual Non-Monogamy, of which I am also a volunteer. Amy, alongside her co-chair, Heath Schechinger, have been featured on our award-winning podcast previously, Episode 171.
Last (but certainly not least), I want to give a huge shoutout to the fantastic photographer, Christa Meola, who took this shot of me last November 2023 at a California professional development event, led by Russ Ruffino. I have much gratitude to the team of mentors and coaches for the opportunity to do this photoshoot (as a “thank you” for referrals – curious? Reach out to me). Then when this whirlwind of an experience was taking shape, Christa leapt to action to recommend of the best photos from our shoot, so that I could get it retouched and over to the WSJ to meet the deadline. You ROCK, Christa! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
FEEDBACK & RESPONSE
Elisabeth shared with me that the article is “doing bang-up readership numbers online.” How exciting to get this piece out in front of so many curious eyes, and as a salute to our overall expanding community.
Elizabeth also shared: “The feedback, as you might imagine, is fairly outraged. We expected that, though.” Grab your popcorn, and let’s all watch what outrageous things happen next! As my husband often says, “if you are not pissing someone off, you are not doing it right.” Well, I guess we are doing something right over here at Loving Without Boundaries.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY POLYAMORY MENTIONS in the NEWS
Another dear colleague of mind, Alan M., made mention of our article in his piece entitled: “January’s wave of poly in the news keeps rolling on” within his long-standing blog, “Polyamory In the News”:
https://polyinthemedia.blogspot.com/2024/01/januarys-wave-of-poly-in-news-keeps.html
In this piece, Alan starts out by saying…
“The sudden wave of fascination with polyamory and ENM in major media continues, as if some sort of tipping point happened early in January…”
… then continues…
Thanks, Alan for the mention of the WSJ piece, and much more importantly for ALL of the fantastic work you have been doing since 2005 (from the looks of your blog) and I’m certain far beyond that. I hope to see you soon!
To help broaden our collective reach, Alan says on his website: “See a good story I’ve missed? Email me at alan7388@gmail.com.”
CELEBRATION
The day the article went live, both my husband and my nesting partner, ran around the Washington, DC area collecting as many “The Wall Street Journal” papers as they could. We took photos of the piece, and shared it with loved ones and our online community. And we celebrated with a lovely and heartfelt toast that evening. I deeply love my unusual family (huge hugs, kisses, and more, my dearest loves!), our extended polycule family who is also celebrating this momentous occasion, as well as our online LWB family, and our allies as well. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart for being here, for being YOU, and for inspiring all of us with your big heart, big dreams, and your even bigger future.
Let’s all be the change that we would like to see in the world.
With love and gratitude,
(and thrilling fun sex too)
Kitty Chambliss, MCC, CPC
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