Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post Writers Group graced us recently with an article titled, "Pandora and Polygamy" whereby he pats himself on the back for predicting that polygamy will succeed gay marriage as the next big civil rights battle. He uses, of course, the airing of the new HBO sitcom "Big Love" as proof that polygamy is seeking acceptance in mainstream America and blames acceptance of Gay Marriage for building the slippery slope through, oh my how original, judicial activism.
For those of you not familiar with me, I live in Arizona where polygamy has been a major problem for years. It's not the suburban white polygamy pictured in the HBO series. That kind of polygamy, to my knowledge, only exists amongst those who break the law by committing bigamy. Real polygamy as practiced by various ex-Mormon cult members, like Biblical polygamy, is usually a matter of young women (often teenagers) being forced to marry old men by their parents, out of either fear or political/monetary gain. This is true of most forms of polygamy you find practiced in other parts of the world.
Krauthammer's reasoning goes like this:
" If traditional marriage is defined as the union of (1) two people of (2) opposite gender, and if, as advocates of gay marriage insist, the gender requirement is nothing but prejudice, exclusion and an arbitrary denial of one's autonomous choices in love, then the first requirement -- the number restriction (two and only two) -- is a similarly arbitrary, discriminatory and indefensible denial of individual choice."
So you see, acceptance of Gay Marriage leads to acceptance of polygamy.
But since truth doesn't matter when you're trying to hang fear and bigotry around the necks of American people, Mr. Krauthammer has seen fit to skate around it at every junction, including the statement that, "until this century Gay Marriage has been sanctioned by no society we know of."
I'm going to step out on a limb here and explain why real polygamy (like the kind you read about in the Bible and as practiced by cults and religions worldwide) would not work in a democratic society where choice exists.
I find nothing wrong with whatever people decide to do within consenting relationships. The key word in that statement is "consenting." We take it in America that "consenting" involves the people involved in the relationship - not parents, courts, or communities.
Most women I know, straight or gay, would not consent to a polygamous relationship as shown on the "Big Love." Even a woman of extremely low self-esteem would think twice before entering into such a relationship. Therefore, even if polygamy was legal, you'd see very few women involving themselves in such a relationship consensually. This is the reason bigamists rarely inform their other wives of the existence of each other.
Real polygamy could never become legal because it's against the law to force a teenage girl to marry some old fart, no matter how powerful he might be in the community. Slavery is against the law and that is exactly what real polygamy shows itself to be - sexual slavery.
The only connection to gays that Mr. Krauthammer sites in his article is when he asks his reader to "Posit a union of, say, three gay women all deeply devoted to each other. " I'd say he's been looking at too many so called lesbian porn sites where three or more (usually heterosexual) girls are pictured together in various sexual doings for the thrill of the heterosexual men that pander to these sites. I've been gay since 12 and I don't know of any lesbian who would seek out, let alone consent to being involved in, a relationship like the one Krauthammer posits.
The only reason articles like these are cropping up now is because the Republican party has lost its only fear provoking issue - Terrorism/Iraq. With the war polling less and less favorable, the elephants now have to turn to the lies and bigotry of their Right Wing X-tian base to position themselves for reelection this year.
They forget Massachusetts has proved that life as we know it and heterosexual marriage as well won't go down the tubes if gay people are allowed to marry, they have to come up with something else to scare voters into pulling the Republican lever.
Expect to see a lot of articles on legalizing polygamy proving that allowing gay marriage is/would be a huge mistake. The two have nothing in common. Expect to see all the Krauthammers slithering out of their holes to scream and shout, but they'll never be able to truthfully link polygamy and gay marriage together.
