Why Not Non-Traditional Family Rights Beyond Just A Two Person Construct?

[votesparks]

If America is truly a free country, then why aren't adults of legal age who consent allowed to form familial combinations that they see fit? If a polygamist in Utah has 10 wives who are all of legal age, and who consent to the situation, who are we to insist that they live up to our construct?

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[zipplewrath]

1. You can

You just can't get the benefits we offer to binary couples. And entire body of law would have to be written to deal with it and there just aren't that many of these relationships for the government to get involved.

[GreenStormCloud]

2. There is a compelling, secular, state reason not to allow it.

Polygamist societies are ALWAYS more violent. If only one man in 20 takes an extra wife, then that is 5% of the male population that has a greatly reduced chance for a marriage and children of their own. Unattached men show a marked tendency towards an increase in violent behavior. It is in the state interest to reduce the level of violence in its society.

[votesparks]

3. I'm not necessarily referring to Utah style polygamy

Maybe a wife wants two husbands. Or 2 plus 2. Why shouldn't she be able to if they all say cool?

[GreenStormCloud]

4. There is no society on Earth in which multiple husbands is practiced.

It may happen occasionally as a rare event, but the norm for humans is a man with multiple wives, and some violence in keeping the harem. We are a sexually dimorphous species and nobody can change what millions of years of evolution has made us. The best we have been able to do is use the power of the state to keep the size of the harem down to one and thereby reduce the violence.

[fasttense]

5. Well put Green Storm Cloud

I will add that polygamy also seems to come with other social problems. Child and spouse abuse, and pedophilia seems to coincide with polygamous societies. There is frequent force both social, legal and physical required to keep women in the harem. Frequently young girls must be forced by their parents into marriages with elderly rich men. Frequently only the older men have accumulated the wealth needed to keep more than one wife and all the accompanying children, so they monopolize all the healthy younger women. Young boys are frequently expelled from polygamous societies because there are not enough women to go around. And if they are NOT expelled, they frequently cause unrest in the polygamous society.

On the surface it sounds fine. Let adults make their own decisions. But in practice it's rarely about choice for women and girls.