If Utah make polygamy legal.

[Strassia]

We have done this before. To quote myself from that thread:

@Strassia

No state in the union grants marriage licenses for more than two people. I contend that this is a rational position.

First, I see nothing inherently morally wrong with polygamy. Fraud and coercion can occur, but that is true of other marriages as well. I know that as a practical matter most communities that practice polygamy in the U.S. have serious issues, but those mostly happen because it is an underground institution. I should note that while I was raised a mainstream Mormon, I never met a polygamous family growing up.

That said, I can see that codifying polygamy is much more complex than the existing marriage laws. Every aspect of marriage laws would need massive overhaul. These are not insurmountable obstacles. But they are real obstacles.

Based on that my position is that the few remaining laws punishing those living in informed consensual poly situations should be removed, but the government is under no Constitutional obligation to recognize the multi party marriages.

I think is entirely possible to have a morally and ethically sound committed relationship with more than two partners. Being in such a relationship should not be a crime in and of itself. But to give that type of relationship the legal standing, protections, and presumptions of current two party marriage is certainly non-trivial (SSM only required pronoun changes for the most part), and may not be possible.

I will quote myself again on the complexity that must be addressed in any legal changes that recognize multi-party marriages:

@Strassia

Suppose here we do it so anybody can marry any consensual adult in any arrangement. You could end up with a five person group (gender doesn’t matter) with A married to B and C, B married to A, C, D, and E, D married to B and C, and E married only to B. Now what happens to assets when D wants to divorce B and marry F? What happens if E gets sued? Can the court take assets that A brought into the marriage, even though A is not married to E? After all, if E is married to B than their assets are joint, and so are A and B’s.

Bottom line for me: If those who wish poly marriages can ever come together and agree with a proposal that would address all the legal ramifications I would not be opposed to it on principle. I may oppose a specific proposal or aspect of said proposal if it seems discriminatory (men can have multiple wives, but not vice versa or the power is vested in one sex over the other when it comes to divorce) or puts an undue burden on the 99% of the population that wants to be in a two party marriage (requiring a specific, detailed contract for every marriage). If those requirements are met I would support such laws at the national and state level. I just don’t see that happening anytime soon.