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Gay ‘throuple’ become first to have polyamorous relationship legally recognised in Colombia

By Will Stroude

Three gay men say they have become the first ‘throuple’ in Colombia to have their polyamorous relationship legally recognised.

Actor Victor Hugo Prada says he and his two partners, sports instructor John Alejandro Rodriguez and journalist Manuel Jose Bermudez, signed legal papers with a solicitor in the city of Medellin on June 8 establishing them as a family unit with inheritance rights.

“We wanted to validate our household… and our rights, because we had no solid legal basis establishing us as a family,” said Prada in a video published by Colombian media on Monday (June 12).

“This establishes us as a family, a polyamorous family,” he added. “It is the first time in Colombia that has been done.”

The trio’s German lawyer, Rincon Perfetti, said that there were many three-person unions in Colombia, but this was the first one to be legally recognised.

Colombia legalised same-sex marriage in April 2016, becoming the fourth Latin American country to do so after Argentia, Brazil and Uruguay.

Victor, 22, John, 36, and Manuel – believed to be in his 40s or 50s – had previously lived as a foursome with another man, Alex Esneider Zabala, who tragically died of stomach cancer in 2015, Colombian magazine Semana reports.

 

Manuel and John originally began a relationship in 1999, before Alex joined the relationship in 2004. Victor became a part of the polyamorous family almost a decade later, in 2012.

Asked by Semana if he considered his marriage strange, Manuel replied: “The strange thing is to say that one can only love one person.”

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