Coragyps writes:
Rather than go to all the onorous burden of actually looking on Wikipedia or Googling it, I thought I would ask here: why is it, really, that multiple spouses are pretty much illegal here in the US? I seem to remember that there weren't polygamy laws until the early Mormons started advocating multiple wives - this would point to the laws being an example of Us vs. Them, no? Why should there even be laws about this issue, beyond those protecting the rights of the fourth wife as well as those of the first.
And I would also like to hear some views on why polygamy could even be construed as "immoral" or "unchristian." Solomon, the wisest of men that he was, had some hundreds of wives, correct?
First introduction of the topic of same-sex marriage to this thread will result in application of the Second Corrolary of Godwin's Rule: the introducer will become a Nazi and be sent to Nurenberg for trial.
That's sort of a loaded question. It's important to note that many people
do live in the US in polyamorous relationships that are identical in all ways to a marriage excepting the legal recognition.
Polygamy in the US has a rather nasty history. It has meant such things as forced arranged marriages, often including incest and pedophilia. Actual marriage-polygamy is usually restricted only to a few fringe religious groups and cults, where in many (not all) cases there is a degree of coercion involved. This all on top of kickback against Mormons. The state doesn't have an interest in dictating who may marry whom, but it
does have a strong interest in preventing child and spousal abuse, and those have unfortunately been strong features in American polygamy. So long as "polygamy" carries implications of young girls being forced to marry old men, raped, beaten, and forced to have more kids who are then married off to other polygamists without even reaching the age of consent, polygamy is likely to remain outlawed.
But again, right now there are lots of people in polyamorous relationships. There are men with multiple live-in girlfriends, women with multiple live-in boyfriends, and even groups of people who all have relationships with each other. None of it is illegal - they just can't all get
married. And while many of the reasons reach into the stigmas I mentioned above, perhaps the strongest
real reason (if we can separate the child/spousal abusers from those who have legitimate relationships with multiple people) is a simple matter of spousal benefits. Which spouse would get to make the medical decisions if there were a disagreement? Do they all get all of the assets in a divorce? How many ways does the community property split if one partner divorces multiple others? Does the leaving party get half? It's a legal headache, and one where the law doesn't have much of a reason to try to accommodate anyone due to insufficient political will to make such changes.
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