Should polygamy be legal in USA?

[Melanie31]

I think it is normal for men to be polygamous. According to my religion, a man can have 4 wives.

[LiamJHayden]

All marriage laws should be eliminated and all such argeements should be done under regular contract law. Not sure how long it will last? Have a five year with renewal options and opt outs. Want to have a four person partnership? That is your business.

[Jerre]

I don’t think it should be legal in the U. S.

[Jerre]

@Melanie31 Thank you for the Like

[Jerre]

@Melanie31 Thank you for the MHO

[AviatorTom]

To be completely honest, I'm not sure why polygamy is illegal. Some may consider it to be immoral, but if someone wants to have multiple spouses, and that works for all of them, why not?

On the Star Trek: Enterprise TV series, Dr Phlox is a Denobulan and has three wives, with each wife having 3 husbands. Standard for his home planet. Works for them.

[lightbulb27]

only thing I can think of is like all other laws... social order. if the 20% of guys get most of the girls, then that leaves insufficient girls for the 80%. That either creates more monks or more social problems.
Thankfully society solved that by creating easy females that spoil lots of males, and the others that have been run into the ground. But that leaves lots of females without mates...

[abc3643]

No, of course not. The two-person monogamous marriage is fundamental to much of the law in the United States and the world. A polygamous marriage creates oceans of new problems that would take trillions of dollars and decades of lawsuits to resolve.

For instance, suppose there's a polygamous marriage involving a man with 3 wives. Let's give them names:

Man: Brigham, 58

1st wife: Miriam, 49, married to Brigham for 32 years, 5 children, 3 are adults now with 2 being older than Lucy, and the youngest being 10.
2nd wife: Mary, 37, married to Brigham for 19 years, 4 kids ages 3 to 16.
3rd wife: Lucy, 24, married to Brigham for 6 years, 1 son age 5.

One day, Brigham gets into a tragic car accident. He's in the hospital and in a permanent vegetative state. He will never come out of it and be normal again.

If Brigham dies, the marriage still exists among the 3 sister wives. But not all the wives agree on what should happen.

Miriam wants to keep Brigham alive and the marriage with her two sister wives intact.

Mary, younger than Miriam but older than Lucy, wants to "pull the plug" on Brigham but also leave the marriage with her sister wives intact. She's young enough that she feels they can attract a new husband to replace Brigham and restore the balance as if Brigham was still alive.

Lucy, the youngest and young enough to be Miriam's daughter, wants none of it. She was married to Brigham at a young age and she did so because of his money and the comfy lifestyle that came with it. At first, she was willing to live with two older sister wives as long as she had the good life. However, she quickly resented the control that the older sister wives had and she secretly can't stand them. Brigham was good to hear though and kept them at bay. Now, with Brigham gone, he won't protect her from the two older sister wives. So, Lucy also wants to "pull the plug" on Brigham, get out of this marriage, and start over while she's still young enough to attract another man like Brigham.

OK, so that's the background...

What happens to Brigham? Who gets to have the say in whether to "pull-the-plug" or not?
And what about the marriage and the Brigham's estate? Who's entitled to what and how much?
And what about the kids? Lucy may want to leave and take her son with Brigham, but the older sister wives love the boy too and their kids play with Lucy's son too. Lucy would be ripping apart the family. So, if Lucy leaves, Miriam and Mary have agreed to sue Lucy for custody.

======

What I wrote above is just one example of the dysfunctional family circus that can exist in a polygamous marriage than cannot happen in a monogamous marriage.

There's an old adage which rings very true:

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Spock said a variant of that:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcxWxNO8idc

[mstbooblover]

Whether polygamy should be legal does not only concerns the USA. In nearly whole the Western world there is a taboo around polygamy. Set aside the idea in itself, the problems would be more practical in the frame of the law and legal issues when things go wrong between partners. What about the resulting kids? The (common) possessions if any? The sentimental complications? Etc.

Personally I think that in the sphere of privacy, people should be allowed to do, live with, or marry whoever they want when general consent is acquired. Polygamy, the fun and fantasies set aside, would require a real mental maturity to manage all the practical problems and challenges, a maturity that's far from granted in most humans.

According Islam, as far as I know, 4 wifes are in theory indeed allowed, but what should be reminded is that the first wife must agree for her husband to marry a second wife, for instance because of fertility problems ! There is also the condition for the man to be able to deal with the material obligations and the physical strenght to satisfy his women. In the Qoran, there are some interesting observations about God's comprehensivity concerning men's tendencies.

[slatyb]

That's not a problem for the United States -- it's a problem for each individual state. Polygamy is legal in a way -- there are no longer any laws against adultery. But having a multi-partner marriage would require some complex changes to current marriage laws, and no one wants to do that very expensive work. There simply aren't enough people who want it.

The polygamist societies that have existed have all been guilty of forcing female children into marriages with older men. Warren Jeffs was a leader of one group. He received a life sentence for child sexual assault.

No one cares if a man and four women choose to cohabit, but he can only be legally married to one of them. They can hire a lawyer to make other financial arrangements for the support of the other three.

[abc3643]

"That's not a problem for the United States -- it's a problem for each individual state."
That's false.
In fact, that was at the core of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. The requirements for an individual to enter a marriage may differ slightly from state to state, but marriages (and associated benefits) must be recognizable in all states and the laws must apply equally to all marriages. That's covered by the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the 14th Amendment.

[abc3643]

This:
"No one cares if a man and four women choose to cohabit, but he can only be legally married to one of them. They can hire a lawyer to make other financial arrangements for the support of the other three."
is good.

My mom, who is not in a polygamous marriage, is in a situation like that. My mom is a widow and, for almost 20 years, she's been cohabitating with a widower as if they were married. They won't get married though because then they each lose benefits from their dead spouses. So, they came up with a contractual arrangement akin to marriage.

[slatyb]

@abc3643 yes, and they are far from alone. The system is really fucked up.

[andreasderjuengere]

From my outside observation I have a feeling that U. S. people are happier to ban or to illegalize things,

rather than making something ''legal''.

Which is relative, because

''legal''

is a single sided imprinted set of ideas from a few who are in power.

[sawno]

Yes, I care about individual liberty. As long as everyone involved agrees with it and has alternatives to it I don't see anything wrong.

[BetaBucks]

The government has no business telling consenting adults who they can and can't marry. And as a side note, we should normalize non-governmental marriages. A government certification shouldn't be the sole defining factor of a marriage.

[Anonymous]

A lot of things should be legal.

[BetaBucks]

Animals can't consent though

[Opinion Owner]

@BetaBucks they can refuse

[FunkyMonkee]

For as often as married people cheat, I don't see why it IS such a big deal!! You're GONNA fuck other people, anyway!!

[Ironic_Method]

I don't think the government should interfere with religion, marriage included.

[In_Trance]

Asking for something to be legal is not a measure of morality it's a cry to authority.
Laws are social constructs used to control a population

[Awantika03]

In Muslim community a man can marry with four girls

[TheStaleMarshmellow]

Marriage itself is a different tax bracket. Gotta rework all that

[StevenMcGarrett]

Yes, I live with my wife, her friend, and my mother in law and it works out great for us

[Iron_Man]

No I don’t like that. I’m faithful to one woman only

[Bklynbadboy12]

Only if it's legal for women toore-state//background_color_rgba (0, 0, 0, 0), font_color_rgb (77, 77, 77), justifyLeft

[Cheerfull009]

4 wives are allowed only in Islam , but in other religions, prohibited but can have millions of girlfriends

[Jpie555]

Would love to have multiple wives… 4 pussies and 4 pairs of tits… yummy!

[Med_guy1978]

The Mormons do if I recall correctly?

[Notherndude84]

No, polyamory should be encouraged though

[LunarEclipse433]

Too much alimony.

[Anonymous]

Yes it should be legal

[Anonymous]

Yess

[negrl4a69]

Fuck yes