Gloria Jackson-Nerfertiti | TheOpenPhotoProject

Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti
Hometown Gulfport, Mississippi

Place of Residence Seattle, WA

Occupation Art Model, Brand Ambassador

Gloria identifies as solopoly because she doesn’t live with any of her partners and she isn’t involved with either of their wives. She has two partners who she considers chosen family because they tend to be there for her more than her birth family. Her partners really adore her and have been there for her through hard times. She was raised as a fundamentalist Christian and through many self discoveries, found her way to polyamory.

Gloria: Actually, I would say that both of my partners I would consider chosen family because they tend to be there for me more than my actual birth family. In fact, I would say that my birth family has let me down may, many times over the years to the point where I learned over the years that I can’t depend upon them.

Gloria at a Seattle coffee shop

Gloria: What it took for me to be out, which is kind of unfortunate that it took this, it took being diagnosed with breast cancer. December 2013 was when I was diagnosed. Shortly after that, it just kind of hit me that life is really short, you know? Even though they caught the cancer really early, it was stage 0, I wasn’t even aware there was such a thing, but still it reminded me of how short life is. I decided from that point on that I was going to be out and proud, so now I am a bisexual activist and polyamorous educator.

Gloria by a student drawing of her as an art model.

Gloria: With the person I would call my “more than a play partner”, we started out just as – we would meet every couple of weeks or so, pretty casual. Eventually we got to become closer to each other. I would say the main reason why I call him “more than a play partner” is because in October 2012, my younger brother who was exactly seven years younger than me, he committed suicide. Greg and my “more than a play partner” were the first people I contacted. Obviously, he was just a play partner there’s no way I would have even thought of contacting him for something like that.

Gloria in front of student drawings of her as an art model.

Gloria: Even though technically his wife is primary partner (he calls all of us his Sweeties), in one sense, all of us are on the same place. But they share resources and insurance, finances and everything, plus they live together. But when I was going through my cancer surgeries, I was the most important. He went with me to the surgeries and the doctor visits and everything. He didn’t take the attitude of, “Well, you’re not my primary partner or anything so good luck with the surgeries and everything.” [Laughing]. It wouldn’t have occurred to him! He wanted me to get well. With my first surgery, I stayed overnight with them for a couple of nights. With the other surgeries I stayed overnight at the hospital. That just amazes me. I can’t imagine if I was in a monogamous situation – maybe I still could have stayed with them but it just would have been different. It would have been a different dynamic and I don’t imagine he could have gone with me to all of the doctor visits and everything. There just wouldn’t have been that same importance."

"I can’t imagine going through this without that support. He switched around his schedule with his other sweetie. Their date night is using on Thursday night and my surgeries were on Thursday so he had to juggle things around.

Gloria at a Seattle coffee shop

Gloria: His family knows all of his sweeties and I sang at his wedding for God’s sake! His parents were there, his coworkers were there. [Laughing] In the invitation – it was on online invitation – that had a family picture of the four of us. He has a wife and two girlfriends, and all four of us were in the picture so his co-workers saw the picture of us ahead of time so there were no surprises.