I am an a-religious person with no ties to any polygamous household.
The court’s decision was a triumph of moral indignation and bad law.
Everyone ignores the fact that all of the harm caused women and children in polygamous households has taken place even though polygamy is illegal. Where is the evidence that this law has saved one woman or child from harm?
The criminalizing of polygamy may actually increase the likelihood of harm because it encourages closed communities like Bountiful where it is extremely difficult to discover what is going on.
We need civil laws to protect women and children, such as one providing that all spouses (formally married, or common-law) have an equal share in the matrimonial home and assets. Under the present law, wives are dependent, at least partly because they have no matrimonial property rights in their home or household income.
The distinction between ‘poly-amorous’ and polygamous households is totally phony. It means that a man may live with as many women as he wishes, unless he marries them, whereupon he’s committed a crime. That’s ridiculous.
The automatic assumption that every woman in a polygamous household is a victim is insulting to them, and all women. The decision and the arguments upholding it are rank paternalism dressed up in the sheep’s wool most people pull over their eyes regarding forms of marriage they do not wish to recognize.
