The court case involving the "Sister Wives" polygynists (plural marriage) is in the news again. Remember, this case is in court because Utah has laws that more or less criminalize polyamorous cohabitation or considering more than one person your spouse.
Here is the report at sltrib.com by Nate Carlisle and Jim Dalrymple II...
As the hearing proceeded, Waddoups zeroed in
on the definition of a polygamous relationship. Posing a hypothetical
question he asked what the difference was between a polygamous
relationship and an unmarried man who chooses to have intimate
relationships with three women.
After a series of increasingly heated
exchanges, Assistant Utah Attorney General Jerrold Jensen replied that a
polygamous relationship is different. He said it was defined by people
representing themselves as married.
“I think it’s the representation that they make to the world,” Jensen said.
Waddoups questioned whether the state had created an arbitrary standard for prosecuting relationships.
“The law has to draw a line somewhere,” Jensen argued.
“They have to be rational lines,” Waddoups shot back.
The rational line is consenting adults. Adults should be free to share love, sex, residence and marriage with ANY consenting adults.
Waddoups said he wondered if Utah’s bigamy statute was created to “stamp out a religious practice.”
Jensen said that religion clearly was a part of
past anti-polygamy laws, but also argued that every state has laws that
ban polygamy.
Waddoups questioned Jensen for about 40 minutes. Waddoups questioned Turley for about half that.
Turley criticized the states’ reliance on stories and anecdotal evidence to say polygamy fostered abuse.
“I can give stories in the tens of thousands in monogamous marriages where abuse has occurred,” Turley said.
There is no good reason to deny adults the right to love who and how they want. The law in Utah needs to go, but it will be just one step along the way. Nationwide, we need to allow freedom of religion, freedom of association, and full marriage equality. Abusers will be easier to find and prosecute if the stigma and criminalizations against plural marriages, polygamy, and polyamory are eliminated.
There more at the website's blog.
![Non-Monogamy Diagram [I:FV]](http://www.obsidianfields.com/lj/nonmonogamy2.5.1.gif){kind=link}
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous wrote:
ReplyDelete"What kind of idiot polygamists live in a state where pretending your girlfriend is another wife will get you sent to prison?
"If you're going to be a mormon fundamentalist polygamist family, the first thing you do is get the f--- out of Utah."
They did end up moving to Nevada. But one might as well ask, "Why didn't Rosa Parks move north?"
Because Rosa Parks wasn't breaking the law. Contrary to popular myth, there was no law requiring her to give up her seat, merely a custom and and expectation. These guys were breaking the law, and they knew it.
ReplyDeleteIf you're gonna break the law, you do it in private. You don't create a TV show documenting it in detail.