Last Updated on March 10, 2020
The activists for both the same-sex and polygamy movements are both focused in the idea of marriage from a perspective that the only consideration for what would be considered grounds fro a marriage is sharing a connection with someone or being on love.
As established in the Supreme Court ruling, marriage is now legally defined as the union between two individuals of any gender based on emotion. While there are those who believe the purpose of establishing a union is for the purpose of raising a family, the Supreme Court famously changed the law of the land during the Obama administration, and some polygamy activists are seeking to use this to further extend marriage privileges.
According to the activists, the number of individuals participating in applying for a marriage license, as with gender, is not relevant to the overall process. In short, if the gender of your partner, or the number of participants in one marriage application has nothing to do with “adult feelings.”
“Marriage is the most child-friendly institution the world has ever known. That’s not because the state bestows its seal of approval to your love affair,” as written in the Federalist. “It’s child-friendly because it’s the only relationship that connects a child to both his mother and father—the only two adults to whom children have a natural right. Marriage is also child-friendly because it excludes all other adults.”
Polygamists also argue that kids do not care who is raising them as long as they are loved. This has already been studied in the case of same-sex relationships, and it is concluded that biology does matter to the child.
This summary of this study was published through Them Before Us:
“[The report] said when single mothers were joined by the children’s biological father, then if the family stayed together, the children were as likely to do as well as children of the best-off stable families, those which where always headed by both a mother and father. But if a stepfather joins a family headed by a lone mother, then the children are likely to grow up with the same problems as children from families that continue to be led by a lone mother.”
The concept of alternative lifestyles and marriages usually involves discussing LGBT rights, but in the case of polygamists, Mormon groups are advocating for the right to engage in marriage with more than one person. Fundamentally redefining the nature of marriage to extend beyond a relationship between two consenting adults in the eyes of the state and, traditionally, God.
The argument in support of marriages between three or more adults is being buffered by qualms about religious freedom, though the notion of violating laws to satisfy religious rights holds little water, especially when modern printings of the Book of Mormon give no reference to polygamy as a necessary practice.
