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{"id":698,"date":"2013-12-18T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T07:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/12\/one-man-one-woman-or-more.html"},"modified":"2013-12-18T07:37:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T07:37:00","slug":"one-man-one-woman-or-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/12\/one-man-one-woman-or-more.html","title":{"rendered":"“One man. One Woman. Or More”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

You knew this was coming \u2014 the New York Times\u2019 \u201cRoom for Debate\u201d<\/a> subject this week is polygamy.\u00a0 Of the mini-opinion pieces, 4 of 6 are pro-polygamy.\u00a0 One argues against based on women\u2019s status in polygamous cultures, and one actually raises the issue of the impact on children.<\/p>\n

How long before the first lawsuit is filed seeking legal recognition of a polygamous union?\u00a0 Probably from a Muslim family, in which the wives are both legally recognized abroad in a Muslim country, where, upon moving to the U.S., one loses that legal status.<\/p>\n

Ann Althouse wrote very strongly in favor of gay marriage on www.althouse.blogspot.com<\/a>, and her consistent response to the question of polygamous marriage has been, \u201cmarriage is\u00a0a legal relationship between two people, and only two, because I say so.\u201d\u00a0 But all the legal arguments in favor of gay marriage can\u00a0be applied to polygamous marriage, and all the arguments against it have been rejected by courts and by legislatures.\u00a0 Fundamentally, in deciding for gay marriage, courts have seen\u00a0marriage as a\u00a0matter of favoring personal liberty and of opposing discrimination against sexual minorities, and have disregarded any claims that there\u2019s an overall social good (e.g., \u201cfor the children\u201d)\u00a0in limiting marriage to male\/female pairings.\u00a0 And people in secular \u201cpoly\u201d relationships claim that it is their \u201csexual orientation\u201d to only be fulfilled in a relationship in which they love, and have sexual relations with, multiple people at the same time.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the overriding priority of \u201cfavoring personal liberty and of opposing discrimination against sexual minorities\u201d extends beyond legal marriage, and trumps religious freedom and any state interest in favoring any one family type over another.\u00a0 Bakers forced to bake wedding cakes with \u201ccongratulations, Adam and Steve.\u201d\u00a0 Fertility specialists forced to treat lesbian couples, even when they\u2019re seeing artificial insemination not due to infertility but simply as a way of acquiring sperm.\u00a0 Adoption agencies obliged to give same-sex couples the same chances at adoption as straight couples.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But, you say, what about all the practical ways in which a three or more person \u201cmarriage\u201d is more complex than a two-person one \u2014 inheritance rights, medical decision-making, Social Security benefits, etc.?\u00a0 The government didn\u2019t let \u201ccomplexity\u201d (that is, the rising issues of three or more parents, when the state legally recognizes two mothers or two fathers, and yet there\u2019s a biological father or mother in the picture as well) get in the way of same-sex couples.\u00a0 And legal recognition of multiple wives would cut down on welfare abuse that exists in polygamous families now, in which the second and other wives claim welfare benefits as \u201csingle mothers\u201d\u00a0(this is the norm in fundamentalist Mormon families here, and in polygamous Muslim families in Europe).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say I favor polygamy.\u00a0 But it\u2019ll be interesting to see how this plays out.\u00a0 And the Althousian response of \u201cjust because\u201d isn\u2019t going to cut it in defense of the two-person marriage.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"