Is polyamory part of the LGBTQ+ community?

LGBTQ+ is an umbrella for sexual orientations — lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer — and gender identities, including transgender and non-binary. Polyamory is a way of structuring relationships: more than one loving relationship at a time, with everyone involved knowing and consenting. A person of any orientation and any gender can be polyamorous, and a person can be LGBTQ+ and entirely monogamous. The categories cross rather than nest.

One 2022 review in Current Opinion in Psychology treats non-monogamy as its own kind of diversity. It describes practitioners of consensual non-monogamy as a group that still experiences stigma and minority stress, notes that this intersects with other identities such as race and sexuality, and argues that relationship diversity belongs alongside gender and sexuality in the study of relationships and well-being (Scoats & Campbell). A 2025 interview study of disclosure describes non-monogamy as a set of relationship identities and structures, contrasting it with monogamous, heteronormative expectations (Anderson et al., Archives of Sexual Behavior).

Whether polyamory should count as an orientation is genuinely contested rather than settled. An article in the journal Sexualities (Klesse, 2014) sets out the debate: some people treat polyamory as a convenient label for their current relationships, others claim it as a core identity, and arguments have been made that polyamory is best understood as a sexual orientation comparable with homosexuality, heterosexuality or bisexuality. The article surveys those arguments and makes the case against the orientation framing, on the grounds that it carries real costs.

The sources here link non-monogamy to other identities only through stigma, not through a count of who belongs where. Consensual non-monogamy is associated with stigma and minority stress that varies by context — parenting and healthcare settings are the examples the review gives — and that intersects with other identities including race and sexuality (Scoats & Campbell, 2022). The disclosure study found that responses to disclosure are typically negative and that healthcare providers are typically uninformed about non-monogamy unless specifically trained (Anderson et al., 2025). Neither source measures how many polyamorous people are LGBTQ+, so this answer makes no claim about the size of any overlap.

So the practical answer depends on what you are asking. Whether polyamory should count as a sexual orientation is contested: some people claim it as one, and the article above argues against treating it that way. It is not a gender identity — it describes a relationship agreement. If you are asking whether polyamorous people belong in LGBTQ+ spaces and organisations, that is a decision each organisation makes, so ask them rather than assuming. And if you are asking whether you personally count, that is yours to decide, and nobody else’s label to assign. If you are looking for community, the answer on finding a non-monogamous community covers the practical routes.