A number of commentators
have predicted that once gay marriage becomes widespread, the
legalization of polygamy is inevitable. There would be no logical
argument against it. Marriage traditionally has been recognized and
supported by civilizations as a means of protecting women,
socializing men and nurturing children. But if it becomes accepted
(as it obviously is) that the primary purpose of the institution is
not to support families but rather to celebrate love and to sanctify
loving relationships, everything changes. If it's only about love,
well, why shouldn't gay people be allowed to marry each other?
Love is love, and gender has nothing to do with it.
But of course, if gender
has nothing to do with the reasons we officially dignify marriages,
why should number? If society believes that the recognition of
loving relationships is the purpose of marriage, why shouldn't three
people marry each other, or ten? Polygamists are certainly as
capable of love as are gay partners, so once gay marriage is
accepted, there is no logical basis for drawing a line around “the
couple.” Two is OK but three is wrong? Why?
But while the acceptance
of gay marriage will lead inevitably to legal polygamy, “inevitably”
seems to be happening a little quicker than anyone thought it would.
In Utah, with its history
of LDS polygamy in the 19th Century, the ban on polygamy
resides in an anti-cohabitation statute. A man who lives in the same
house with several unrelated women violates that law because they are
presumed to be (and almost certainly are), in a polygamous marriage.
I don't know of other states that have laws like this, but then,
there are no other states with Utah's history. The first
anti-cohabitation statute was actually imposed upon the Utah
Territory by the federal government in 1882. The suppression of
polygamy was a condition of Utah being admitted as the 45th
state in 1896.
Last week in Salt Lake
City, in a lawsuit brought by the family in TLC's reality show
“Sister Wives,” a Federal District Judge declared Utah's
anti-cohabitation statute in violation of the First and Fourteenth
Amendments to the US Constitution. The effect is to decriminalize
polygamy in Utah.
Utah, like every other
state, still has a bigamy statute, which provides that a person may
have only one “official” spouse at a time, but this is of no
significance to anyone. Polygamy was always a religious practice and
an unofficial arrangement rather than something you registered down
at the courthouse. The end of the anti-cohabitation statute means
that polygamy is now legal in Utah.
In an ironic coda to the
decriminalization of polygamy, a different Federal District
Judge in Salt Lake yesterday ruled that Utah's law prohibiting
same-sex marriages violates the US Constitution. Gay marriages are
now being performed in the Beehive State.
Copyright2013MichaelKubacki
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