There is hullaballoo in Canada about how the provincial government in British Columbia is asking the Supreme Court of Canada for a legal opinion on the matter of polygamy. As my friend the Rook says, it’s probably not so much that the BC government wants to outlaw polygamy, but that the BC government wants to get rid of the fanatical religious sects living in their province. Which is to say, they can’t figure out how to get in there and tell the folks living in places like Bountiful that it’s a little reprehensible that they marry off their daughters at 12 to men four and five times their age, and that the girls really have no choice in the matter.
But that isn’t an issue of polygamy.
That is an issue of misogyny, child abuse, and pedophelia.
In essence, I don’t think there’s a single thing wrong with polygamy or polyandry or group marriages. Nor with polyamoury. In fact, I think that the more people you can love, the more people you *should* love. Doing so within committed relationships makes it *even better*. Here’s the trick: polygamy is not the same as bigamy. There’s a big difference between being married to more than one person, and marrying more than one person. If you get my drift.
So.
a) I have a HUGE problem with the government of BC spending taxpayers’ money on something they should be able to handle provincially. They just don’t *want* to. Nobody wants to be the bad guy. No parent wants to discipline their kids. The BC government wants to get rid of some religious communities they find distasteful, and which are probably harming the provincial image.
b) I don’t think polygamy should be illegal. It shouldn’t matter who you choose to marry, as long as everyone involved is able to make an informed, reasonable decision to do so, in a state of honour and love.
c) It’s pretty terrible that a group of fanatical people are hiding behind a freedom of religion argument, but the bottom line is that polygamy oughtn’t be illegal. The fanatical people should be arrested for abuse and endangerment.
d) I really wish that people would stop trying to make this a discussion about morals. It needs to be a discussion about rights. And in my opinion, Canadians should have the right to marry whoever they want, with the provisions already mentioned. Morals have nothing to do with it. The most important moral really needs to be: do no harm.
i make squee noises when you tell me stuff.