Same-sex marriage leads to polygamy?

Published 9:54 pm Tuesday, December 17, 2013

When same-sex marriage was being debated, its supporters cried foul when opponents said that if you redefine marriage, then definitions no longer matter. If marriage is fine between two people of the same gender, then why not three people, of any gender?

The slippery slope argument was dismissed as irrelevant, but less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court made a key ruling allowing same-sex marriage, a lower court has effectively legalized polygamy for the state of Utah.

And supporters of polygamy are pointing to the Supreme Court decision as their basis for demanding full legal recognition of the practice.

“The time has come to address this discrepancy,” wrote Emory law professor Mark Goldfeder for CNN. “When the Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act in U.S. v. Windsor in June, opening the door to federal recognition of same-sex marriage, it also set the stage for a discussion of plural marriage. DOMA defined marriage as ‘a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.’ While DOMA obviously prohibited same-sex marriage (by requiring that a marital unit consist of a man and a woman), it also enshrined the prohibition against polygamy, by requiring that such a union be between only one man and one woman.”

It’s not just the same-sex marriage argument being adapted for polygamy; it’s also the “harm reduction” argument of legalizing drugs.

“What competing narratives about polygamy in America reveal is that whether or not a white-washed, clean-cut version of plural marriage could in theory legally exist, in practice it does not, and what states like Utah, Arizona and Texas actually have is an unregulated, dangerous and harmful situation, where the strong prey upon the weak and helpless,” Goldfeder wrote.

In other words, polygamy happens, and because it can’t be stopped, it should be legalized and regulated.

But is that so? First, laws only exist because they are broken sometimes.

And even supporters such as Goldfeder admit that polygamy — in practice — is the source of horrific abuse and coercion. Several people could, in theory, enter into a polygamous relationship willingly and even happily. In practice, however, it fosters a culture of underage and forced marriages, the ostracizing of excess young men, and other societal ills.

“In cultures that permit men to take multiple wives, the intra-sexual competition that occurs causes greater levels of crime, violence, poverty and gender inequality than in societies that institutionalize and practice monogamous marriage,” a new study by the University of British Columbia finds. “By shifting male efforts from seeking wives to paternal investment, institutionalized monogamy increases long-term planning, economic productivity, savings and child investment, the study finds. Monogamy’s institutionalization has been assisted by its incorporation by religions, such as Christianity… Monogamous marriage also results in significant improvements in child welfare, including lower rates of child neglect, abuse, accidental death, homicide and intra-household conflict.”

The debate over same-sex marriage is largely over.

But we find that the slope is slippery indeed.