<p>Relationship anarchy, as a topic, seems to draw heavily from both poly folks and queer folks. In fact, the three ideas are so heavily intertwined that it’s difficult to have one without the others. Poly? Well, there’s a good chance that there are some queer aspects to your relationship.</p>
<p>And if you’re queer and at least of a certain age, relationship anarchy is baked into your soul. If your society sets up a “natural” relationship progression and then bars an entire class from entry to that progression, subversive and transgressive relationship structures form as a matter of course.</p>
<p>When you’re queer, <em>being queer</em> is baked into just about everything about you, but most especially in your relationships. “Minority identity acts as a force multiplier on social dynamics,” as Orrery put it.</p>
<p>Something that queer relationships miss, or at least reconfigure to their own ends, is the relationship escalator, that heteronormative idea that one gets on at the ground floor of friendship and gets off at the top with marriage, or one can stop off at any of the other floors to stop for a while, or to step off entirely when the relationship ends.</p>
<p>In nonheteronormaitve relationships, the idea is muddied. The friends-dating-marriage-children set of steps, originally shattered whe marriage was made illegal and adoption banned for large swaths of queer folks, just doesn’t fit. The barrier between friends and dating, as well as between dating and permanent relationship, is thin, osmotic.</p>
<p>Yes. Suddenly, organically, though not for lack of deliberation. There’s much talking, if everything goes right, much working out of boundaries. It’s just that there are fewer milestones.</p>