Matt Bullen (born 1969) is an English writer and polyamory advocate.
Born in Guildford, Surrey, Bullen was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford and the University of Birmingham, UK. He co-wrote some Family: the web series [1] episodes with Terisa Greenan. He has also written about polyamory for publications including The Idler . He has spoken about polyamorous parenting on national and international television, and other forums. [2] [3] He has been interviewed in publications including Details and City Living Seattle. [4] The Newsweek feature [5] that centered on his family, and on "Family: the web series", was listed as a Newsweek's Editors' Top Ten article in 2009. In June 2015, this article was cited by Chief Justice John Roberts as part of his dissent to the decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the USA. [6]
Bullen has contributed articles on other subjects to publications including the Dancing Times and the Comedy Review and he conducted the last extensive interview with Monty Python's Graham Chapman. [7]
On Christmas Eve 2018, he married Cecilia Capehart-Bullen in Kent, Washington, USA. Capehart-Bullen is a great granddaughter of the late U.S. Senator Homer E. Capehart. [8] [9]
In March 2021 they launched a podcast about their age-gap marriage, titled A Brit, A Brat, & A 25-Year Gap: A Seattle Age-Gap Marriage. [10]
Graham Chapman was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979).
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983).
Monty Python were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974). Their work then developed into a larger collection that included live shows, films, albums, books, and musicals; their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Their sketch show has been called "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy".
Sir Michael Edward Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Since 1980, he has made a number of travel documentaries.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their BBC Television series Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Polyamory is the practice of, or desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. People who identify as polyamorous may believe in open relationships with a conscious management of jealousy and reject the view that sexual and relational exclusivity (monogamy) are prerequisite for deep, committed, long-term, loving relationships. Others prefer to restrict their sexual activity to only members of the group, a closed polyamorous relationship that is usually referred to as polyfidelity.
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can also constitute cultural minorities were Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Leontine Sagan in Germany. These pioneers were later followed by the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in the United States.
A ménage à trois is a domestic arrangement and committed relationship with three people in polyamorous romantic or sexual relations with each other, and often dwelling together; typically a traditional marriage between a man and woman along with another individual. The phrase is a loan from French meaning "household of three". Contemporary arrangements are sometimes identified as a throuple, thruple, or triad.
Open marriage is a form of non-monogamy in which the partners of a dyadic marriage agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without this being regarded by them as infidelity, and consider or establish an open relationship despite the implied monogamy of marriage. There are variant forms of open marriage such as swinging and polyamory, each with the partners having varying levels of input into their spouse's activities.
Dorothy "Dossie" Easton, who has also written under the name Scarlet Woman, is an American author and family therapist based in San Francisco, California. She is polyamorous and lives in West Marin, California.
Non-monogamy is an umbrella term for every practice or philosophy of non-dyadic intimate relationship that does not strictly hew to the standards of monogamy, particularly that of having only one person with whom to exchange sex, love, and/or affection. In that sense, "nonmonogamy" may be accurately applied to extramarital sex, group marriage, or polyamory. It is not synonymous with infidelity, since all parties are consenting to the relationship structure, partners are often committed to each other as well as to their other partners and cheating is still considered problematic behavior with many non-monogamous relationships.
Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, born as Diana Moore, subsequently known as Morning Glory Ferns, Morning Glory Zell and briefly Morning G'Zell, was an American community leader, author, and lecturer in Neopaganism, as well as a priestess of the Church of All Worlds. An advocate of polyamory, she is credited with coining the word. With her husband Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, she designed deity images.
Terminology within polyamory looks at the evolution and meaning of the word "polyamory" itself, as well as alternative definitions and concepts which closely relate to it.
Polygamy is not legally recognised in Australia. Legally recognised polygamous marriages may not be performed in Australia, and a person who marries another person, knowing that the previous marriage is still subsisting, commits an offence of bigamy under section 94 of the Marriage Act 1961, which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment. However, the offence of bigamy only applies to attempts to contract a legally recognised marriage; it does not apply to polygamous marriages where there is no attempt to gain recognition for the marriage under Australian law. Whether or not either or both partners were aware of the previous subsisting marriage, the second marriage is void. Foreign polygamous marriages are not recognized in Australia. However, a foreign marriage that is not polygamous but could potentially become polygamous at a later date under the law of the country where the marriage took place is recognized in Australia while any subsequent polygamous marriage is not. While under Australian law a person can be in at most one legally valid marriage at a time, Australian law does recognise that a person can be in multiple de facto relationships concurrently, and as such entitled to the legal rights extended to members of de facto relationships.
Diaries 1969–1979: The Python Years, dedicated by Michael Palin to his mother and father, has reduced "mountains to molehills", according to his own words, to take the reader inside the period of the author's life that corresponds to the Monty Python era. In the introduction we are advised that he started keeping this specific diary in April 1969, at 25 years of age, one month before the Python experience started in full swing. It started as a means to keep away from smoking, after fellow Python Terry Gilliam accused him of being addicted to cigarettes. He has continued the diary, written on Ryman's reporter's notepads, for 37 years . The first entry on the book-diary corresponds to April 17, 1969, and there is a four-month gap after August 11, 1971, owed, according to the Palin's family folklore, to William's stage of "putting things inside other things", in this case the reporter's pad in the trash bin. The diary is resumed on December 24, 1971, and the last entry corresponds to December 31, 1979.
Terisa Greenan is an American film producer, film director, writer and stage and film actress.
Family: the web series is an episodic 2008 web series created by actress and filmmaker Terisa Greenan, based loosely on her own life of polyamory with her two male partners. Greenan wrote and directed the show, and acted in a small supporting role. Some episodes were co-written by Matt Bullen.
Polyamory is a relationship orientation that is practiced by a minority of the population in the United States, about 4 to 5 percent. According to a 2016 study, 20 percent of singles in the US have attempted some form of consensual non-monogamy at some point of their lives, such as polyamory or open relationships. In a study, polyamorous couples tend to identify as bisexual and pansexual.