Obviously gay relationships and polygamous relationships are not the same. That's not the question. The question is how do you justify discriminating against polygamists?
I think polygamous marriage should be legal along with gay marriage. However, I'm going to play devil's advocate here because you may be oversimplifying the issue. In Judge Walker's opinion striking down Proposition 8, he discussed at some length the evidence pertaining to gay marriage and monogamous gay couplings in general, concluding that these were stable households with good child rearing, no better or worse than straight marriages. In the case of polygamy, it isn't the concept of the polygamous marriage that is the trouble like gay marraige is with those who oppose it. Rather, it is the actual, real world historical practice of it that is the problem. My understanding is that the vast majority of polygamous marriages are entered into by practitioneers of fringe mormon sects, that all involve one man/multiple women, that there are no age restrictions and many if not most females are brought in well under the age of consent, and that the women (actually girls) are not given any choice in the arrangement or its consummation.
I don't think you can just say that because you support one thing you must support another in order to be consistent. For myself, I think polygamous marriage should be legal because the concept of it is not problematic, and I think that law enforcement can scrutinize the communities in which it takes place to prevent related crimes from being committed, rape of the statutory and forcible nature being the most obvious. However, it is oversimplying to say that support for one type of marriage must necessarily entail support for another.
- wolf
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