Quote:
Originally Posted by sigmadiva
Why not? Polygamist think differently on this issue.  |
I am coming at this from a societal perspective.
Same sex unions are about giving couples certain legal protections that married couples enjoy. It is about facilitating couples buying homes and comingling their finances without having to spend a fortune on legal documents to protect their assets from blood heirs in the event of death- many of whom may well loathe and detest their relative's lifestyle.
It is about someone being able to visit his/her partner in the hospital or carry out that person's medical wishes when that partner's family wants to perhaps do something entirely different.
I have been shocked to see how some gay friends of mine have been treated by their significant others' family- especially in times of emergency. The sheer hatred and ignorance of some people can even overcome their love for their own children or siblings.
This is where I think the debate has to come from- and there are two sides to it- since hard facts and realities can be looked at in light of what is best for a society's citizens and society at large.
But my contention is that certain key protections are offered to many citizens without being detrimental to society at large. On the contrary, it encourages and promotes more stability- financial and otherwise- in the gay community.
I would argue polygamy is a different story. By nature, humans are a species that tend to be monogamous. Sure a lot of people play around, but we are not generally a polygamous species. And polygamy would very much disrupt how our society is structured- especially in the area of marital law.
And history certainly shows that polygamy lends itself to more of a property arrangement. One need only look at certain fanantical branches of the Mormon Church. Polygamy goes hand in hand with statutory rape, the abuse and expulsion of younger men who would be competition for wives and the ultimate result is a few powerful men with all the money, all the women and a scary kind of domination over an entire community.
It is on those grounds that I would argue society should never endorse or permit polygamous unions. While I am sure there are cases where a handful of people would be perfectly happy and mature about a polygamous union, any benefit or fairness their from the perspective of society at large is outweighed by the very real fact that such unions would, in many cases, be abused to create legalized nightmares such as I have outlined which already exist in more than a few instances even though illegal.
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