Free Republic

You might think that this is grotesque. I certainly think it is grotesque. But should we be so judgemental about the unorthodox connubial arrangements of Anna and Lucy Decinque, 31-year-old identical twins who are sharing a bed with their 32-year-old electrical mechanic boyfriend Ben Byrne? The trio have lived together for the last four years in Perth, Western Australia, with the girls’ mother. The girls are inseparable, so much so that they have spent A$240,000 on various cosmetic improvements to look even more alike. They imitate each other and share everything. Even their boyfriend. When Anna and Lucy appeared on...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)BILLINGS - Given the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, a Lockwood family is now looking to solidify rights of its own. We first told you about the Colliers in January of 2015 when the polygamist family appeared on an episode of the TLC show, "Sister Wives."The polyamorous movement is a national push to allow marriage between multiple partners. Nathan Collier and his two wives, Vicki and Christine, said Tuesday that they are simply looking for equality. Nathan is legally married to Vicki, but also wants to legally wed Christine. On Tuesday,...

On October 22...LDS.ORG posted three essays dealing with the practice of plural marriage by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between the 1830s and 1904... Several major controversies have been generated in conjunction with the introduction of plural marriage in Nauvoo in the early 1840s. All of these are briefly discussed in the introductory essay, Polyandry (paragraphs 20–23, endnotes 29–30). The essay acknowledges that “Joseph Smith was sealed to a number of women who were already married,” estimating the number of these sealings at 12–14 (endnote 29)... Fanny Alger... Sexuality... Children with plural wives... Number of...

Should we really care if more than two consenting adults want to marry each other, or if polygamy advocates see the LGBT movement as an inspiration? A few years ago, when I was rushing my daughter to pre-school one morning, a similarly tardy and exasperated-looking mom passed us on the stairs. My daughter took this as an opportunity to announce, “I have two moms.” The exasperated mom picked up her hunched shoulders to turn to Willa and, after a sigh, say, “You don’t know how lucky you are.” This has happened to us a lot. On more occasions than I...

In the US, polygamy seems to be most commonly associated with Mormons. TV shows like Big Love, Sister Wives, and My Five Wives offer looks at polygamy, but only from a specific viewpoint. For some Americans, TLC’s reality series Sister Wives, which centers on a fundamentalist Mormon family, may even teach them all they know about polygamy. But the practice of polygamy hasn’t been sanctioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which is the official name of the Mormon church) since 1890 when Church President Wilford Woodruff ended the practice. The Mormon church has actually denounced the...

She forged divorce documents to have a second husbandA court in Ajman sentenced an Arab woman to a suspended one year in prison on charges of forging official papers and having two husbands at the same time. The woman went on trial in the northern emirate after her first husband filed a law suit accusing her of marrying another man after forging documents showing that he had divorced her in their home country. The husband, in his 40s, denied divorcing her and told court that he had not travelled home with his wife at that time. The court found that...

A rare polyandry case in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Jordan has sparked controversy when the four husbands take a dispute over the pregnancy of their shared wife to court. The London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat reported this week that a court in Jordan’s northern town of al-Ramtha is considering the case, which reportedly involves two Syrian men, a Jordanian and a Saudi Arabian. Each man claimed to be the real impregnator of the wife, denying awareness that she was married to another man, according to al-Hayat. The court resorted to DNA tests to resolve the dispute. Many people expressed their...

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)A conversation on The Roundtable convinced me to address polygamy. A judge in Utah decided that state could ban formal legal polygamy but could not ban people living in comparable arrangements without formal legal sanctions. Some people argue that legalization of polygamy follows from constitutional protection of gay and lesbian relationships. If one consensual relationship is OK, therefore so are all the others. That is a mistake. The law does not work that way. Missing from that argument is any mention of whether anyone is hurt and how. There are many ways that law takes account of injury, both constitutional...

In modern America, sex is increasingly where it should be: outside the reach of government. Anti-sodomy statutes have been tossed by the Supreme Court. Contraception is widely accessible. Anyone with a computer can gorge on pornography without fear of prosecution. Same-sex marriage has been legalized in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Now another step has been taken to expel police and legislators from the bedrooms of consenting adults: a federal court decision striking down a key element of Utah's ban on polygamy. Last month, District Judge Clark Waddoups ruled that the law infringes not only on constitutionally protected...

That didn’t take long. Salon magazine this morning is extolling the virtues of multi-spouse marriages.Same-sex “marriage” proponents have always scoffed at the idea that redefining marriage would open the door for multi-spouse marriages. “My Two Husbands by Angi Becker Stevens, not only argues for “poly-amorous” unions but continues to scoff at the foolish “right wing” people who expected people to go there. Her article is novel only in that it also scoffs at the same-sex marriage definers who argued back that it wouldn’t.Stevens has been married for 16 years to her husband, and has now taken a boy\friend who she...

There is nothing in our current legal system or national moral climate that will stop polygamy from becoming the next liberal cause: “Redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would jettison the rationale and logic behind prohibitions on polygamous marriages, according to several friend-of-the court briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the traditional definition of marriage. “‘Ultimately, there is no principled basis for recognizing a legality of same-sex marriage without simultaneously providing a basis for the legality of consensual polygamy or certain adult incestuous relationships,’ reads one of the briefs, filed by the Christian legal group Liberty Counsel. ‘In...

GREGG COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - For more than a year, KLTV has been investigating the allegations by several East Texas men that they were all married to the same woman at the same time. Now, that woman has been charged with bigamy. Candice Andrade, 32 of Kilgore, was arrested in Gregg County on November 15 and released the same day. Her trial date has not been set. In June of 2011, two men said they discovered they were married to Andrade at the same time. They told KLTV they found a third husband in Houston. In November 2011, they discovered...

NEW YORK – Hundreds of protesters against the legalization of gay marriage in New York jammed the hallways of the Capitol building Monday as Republican senators privately discussed whether to bring the same-sex marriage issue to a floor vote. Demonstrators opposing gay marriage, including Christian ministers, African-American church members and Tea Party organizers, outnumbered those in support of the controversial bill, which has 31 votes and needs one more vote to pass the New York Senate. The measure was approved by the New York State Assembly last Wednesday, 80 to 63.Republicans have been mulling over same-sex marriage bill in private...

A HWANGE woman has shocked her locals after marrying five husbands, three of whom she is currently staying with under one roof, the state controlled Sunday Mail reported. Her first two husbands have died, with one of them committing suicide after a traditional court tried to end the bizarre union. The woman behind this unusual case of polyandry (having two or more husbands at the same time) is Ms Shupi Gladys Ngwenya from Gezi Line in Lupote Village, about 80km from the mining town of Hwange. According to Lupote village head Ms Lydia Ncube, before Shupi's first husband died three...

Decrying as “missionaries of hate” U.S. Christians who preach in Africa against homosexual practice, a former bishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda spoke June 8 at a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C.Christopher Senyonjo was hosted by Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop to be consecrated in the Anglican Communion. Robinson has served as Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) since March. The two spoke about anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda, which they blamed upon U.S. evangelicals. They also called for a broader effort to decriminalize homosexual practices...

Looks like a historic legal battle is shaping up over polygamy, the outcome of which will surely be determined by the Supreme Court of Canada. I understand why, for political reasons, the government feels compelled to fight polygamy tooth and nail, but I suspect the government will lose. The polygamists have what seems to be an unassailable constitutional position. If polygamy is an expression of their religion, and if the participants are all consenting adults, then I don't see how the state can say no. Note the words "consenting" and "adults". No court would allow you to take a child...

Amar and Kundan Singh Pundir are brothers. Younger brother Amar breaks rocks in a mine for a living. Kundan farms their small piece of inherited land. They live in a beautiful but remote hillside village in the clouds of Himachal Pradesh, India. Both aged in their forties, the two brothers have lived together nearly their whole lives. They are poor and share just about everything: Their home, their work and a wife. "See we have a tradition from the beginning to have a family of five to 10 people. Two brothers and one wife." Kundan says. They practice what is...

DALLAS - When a pair of Mormon missionaries knocked at the door of Jerry Pierce's home in a north Dallas suburb last month, he marshaled his arguments and stood his ground. "I look forward to encounters like that. I like to talk to them about the nature of Christ and who Jesus is," said Pierce, a staunch Southern Baptist, the biggest Protestant denomination in the United States. Mitt Romney, a Mormon, is running into similar resistance as he tries to win over Southern Baptists and other evangelical Protestants in the race for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2008 U.S....

Margaret Somerville | Monday, 20 August 2007 Canada ponders polygamy Now that same-sex marriage has been legalised, it seems inconsistent to prosecute Canada's polygamists. Currently, in Canada, polygamy is in the news. The Canadian Criminal Code prohibits polygamy, but it is being practiced in some communities and the question is whether the people involved should be prosecuted. Recently, the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s nationally distributed newspapers, published an editorial entitled "No to polygamy". It’s relevant that the Globe was a major voice in support of same-sex marriage in the public debate that culminated in its legal recognition in...

Republicans, This Is Why You MUST Vote!Written by Doc FarmerMonday, November 6 2006ChronWatch.com Tomorrow is Election Day. The miracle provided to you by the Founding Fathers in 1776, and protected and preserved for you by the blood of our best. A miracle that most Americans, sadly, take for granted. Don't be one of those who take it for granted. Especially if you're a rep/con/tair -- my more accurate term for the so-called "right". An amalgam of the core political constructs of Republicans, conservatives and libertarians. For many, many months, you've been told that the lib/dem/soc/commies (my more accurate term for...