AnneM

Submitted by kazander (United States), Nov 28, 2008 at 19:30

On what basis would you argue that the practice of polygamy inherently turns women into second-class citizens or promotes tension between them? I'm sure there are unhappy polygamous marriages, but there are unhappy and abusive monogamous marriages as well. I doubt you could produce any evidence that indicates that women are worse off in polygamous marriages, and plenty of evidence of polygamous situations in which both the women and men are happy with the situation.

Regarding your concerns about sexual abuse, as I noted, why would you think that we would exempt polygamists from the laws that currently govern marriage and sexual intercourse and that ban things such as sexual abuse of children and forced marriages?

Every time I engage in discussions like this, it just becomes clearer and clearer to me that the opponents of gay marriage and polygamy really have no logical arguments. All they have is the yuck factor and some vague, historically dubious (and ultimately irrelevant) claims that somehow constitutional rights depend on the Bible. Oh, and that somehow polygamy will lead to people marrying dogs.

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