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For the sake of brevity - straight to the point (pun intended). I have thought long about Huckabee's recent interview with Katie Couric. One of the topics that came up was Huckabee's view on same-sex marriage, and it was no accident that it came up. Huckabee's position on the issue of abortion is concrete - he is ardently pro-life. What remained was for him to effectively frame the same-sex marriage debate, and that he did. Quite effectively in fact. In short, he told Couric that he was pro-traditional marriage, not anti-same sex marriage. He said that it's not that he...

Eldorado, Texas » A 57-year-old member of a polygamous group raided by Texas authorities last year has been convicted of sexual assault of a child. A Schleicher County jury in the West Texas town of Eldorado deliberated less than two hours Tuesday before convicting Allan Keate. He faces up to life in prison for his alleged so-called "spiritual marriage" to a 15-year-old girl who gave birth at age 16. Keate was immediately taken into custody. The jury will hear more testimony before deciding his sentence. Much of the prosecution's case relied on extensive church records seized from the Yearning For...

San Angelo, Texas » Jurors heard more from a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Monday in the trial of Allan Keate, who faces charges of sexually assaulting a child. Rebecca Musser explained why she moved away from her FLDS community. Having been married to FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs in her late teens, she was pressured along with younger wives to marry the new prophet, Rulon Jeffs' son Warren Jeffs, and she refused, Musser said. Musser said Warren Jeffs told her, "I will break you. I will make you a good wife....

33-year-old professional golfer extraordinaire appears to have amassed a collection of trollops, hussies, harlots, sluts, and other assorted mistresses and bimbos in addition to his main squeeze, the 29-year-old blond, former Swedish model Elin Nordegren to whom he was publicly married in 2004. Too much money, narcissism, ego, sex-drive, and far too many willing and perhaps conniving young women interested in short-term, shallow, fantasy affairs have created the celebrity sports/entertainment scandal of the month. The coverage may keep going for months to come as it has proven to be great fodder for our shallow 24/7 info-entertainment business. Tiger is a...

In the April 23, 2008 online-edition of The New York Times, Timothy Egan wrote a post on the Outposts blog claiming that the way polygamy is practiced today by members of the FLDS sect in Eldorado, Texas is the same as it was practiced by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in the 19th century. While most people know that Mormons abandoned the practice of polygamy at the end of the 19th century, it's also important to understand that the conditions surrounding the practice of polygamy in Texas today bear little resemblance to the plural...

The first polygamist sect member to face criminal trial following last year's raid at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in West Texas was convicted Thursday of sexually assaulting an underage girl with whom he had a so-called "spiritual marriage." Raymond Jessop, 38, didn't visibly react when the verdict was read after just more than two hours of jury deliberations. Free on bond during trial, he was immediately handcuffed and led to jail. Jurors were expected to return to court Monday to begin deciding his sentence on the child sexual assault conviction. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Lawyers...

No sooner had we celebrated the exit of Barack Obama's green jobs czar, Van Jones, because of his Communist connections, another off-the-wall administration embarrassment surfaced. President Obama nominated for commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) a woman who signed a radical manifesto endorsing polygamy. We thought our nation had settled the polygamy issue a century and a half ago, but this nomination makes it a 21st century controversy. Obama's nominee for the EEOC, a lesbian law-school professor named Chai R. Feldblum, signed a 2006 manifesto endorsing polygamous households (i.e., "in which there is more than one conjugal partner")....

The following message (though not this picture) was posted yesterday on the Mormon Church's public affairs blog. It explains the group's unhappiness with recent news reports that refer to "splinter groups" which hive off from the Salt Lake City-based "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (AKA "the Mormon Church") as "Mormons." These splinter groups (AKA "Mormon Fundamentalists") assiduously devote themselves to the practice of the doctrine of polygamy (which was renounced by THE Mormon Church in 1890) and around whichever Viagra-addled alpha male has set himself up as the prophet, seer, and revelator for that particular harem.

  President Barack Obama has nominated a Georgetown University law professor, Chai R. Feldblum, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Council. Feldblum, a lesbian activist lawyer, formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign Fund, and in the mid-1980s clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the author of Roe v. Wade.   Feldblum faces Senate confirmation hearings before she can assume her post at the EEOC. The significance of her nomination for Catholics is underscored by the EEOC's recent ruling that Belmont Abbey, a Catholic college, must provide coverage for contraception in its insurance plans for...

President Barack Obama has nominated a lesbian activist lawyer to serve as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In a recent White House announcement, President Obama nominated Chai Feldblum, a professor of law (gay studies) at Georgetown University who formerly worked for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the pro-homosexual Human Rights Campaign Fund, to serve as one of five Commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In the mid-1980s, Ms. Feldblum clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmum, the liberal Supreme Court justice who authored the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. “She has also...

Are Mormons Christians? That's one of the biggest issues members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they encounter in today's society. "To us, to be Christians is to be followers and disciples of Christ," said Steve Stanfill, president of the church's Evansville stake, a group of 12 congregations in Southwestern Indiana, southeastern Illinois and Western Kentucky. Some groups insist Mormons are not Christians. One reason is differences over the nature of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. As "Christianity Today" once explained it, Mormons teach that God began as a finite being who achieved his exalted...

More than a hundred years ago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) outlawed the practice of polygamy. LDS records, however, indicate that early Mormon leaders, Joseph Smith Jr. and Brigham Young, have both been “sealed” (married) for eternity to hundreds of wives. Despite its current temporal ban on polygamy, the LDS Church promotes polygamy on a perpetual basis. Polygamous unions, mainly on behalf of the dead, using living Mormons as proxies, are routinely performed in LDS temples. Mormon fundamentalists — representing the sects of Mormonism which embrace early Mormon teachings that made polygamy a central part of...

SNIPPET: "The president has nominated Chai Feldblum, a lesbian activist, to be commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her appointment is awaiting Senate confirmation." SNIPPET: "Feldblum, a law professor at Georgetown University, has signed an online petition titled, "Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families and Relationships."" SNIPPET: ""Chai Feldblum is on record saying that the battle between our religious freedoms and homosexual so-called rights is a zero sum game," says Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth about Homosexuality." SNIPPET: ""She says she can't think of a case where the religious rights -- in...

A South African man wanted to marry four women, but didn’t want to pay for four weddings, so he combined all the ceremonies into one. Milton Mbhele, 44, went against traditional polygamous wedding rules by marrying his four brides at the same time last month, according to the Kenyan Daily Nation . The four brides, Happiness Mdlolo (24), Thobile Vilakazi (34), Smangele Cele (23) and Zanele Langa (24) walked down the aisle together before saying “We do” to the happy groom. Mbhele said he loves all the women equally and that he didn’t marry them purely for the spectacle but...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is fundraising his way across the country, raising suspicions that the 2008 presidential contender is gearing up for another run. Romney held fundraisers for his Free and Strong America political action committee in three states and the District of Columbia in September, and he will hold two more in Texas and Missouri this week, a spokesman confirmed to The Hill. "Mitt Romney is doing what he can to strengthen the Republican Party nationally and help its candidates be successful, and that is going to take up more and more of his time as we...

While much has been said about the heartache of plural wives living in 19th-century Mormonism, these unions could also bring happiness and unusual independence, according to a prominent religious scholar. During a lecture Thursday before a packed house at the LDS Tabernacle, Kathleen Flake said that often only the negative side of polygamy is emphasized. “I am always suspicious when I only hear one side of an argument,” added Flake, who teaches religious history at Vanderbilt University. This suspicion lead her to research polygamy in Utah during the pioneer era, a time when about 25 percent of Latter-day Saints were...

President Obama's nominee to become commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission signed a manifesto praising polygamy and arguing traditional marriage should not be privileged above other forms of union. Chai Feldblum, an outspoken homosexual rights activist and Georgetown University law professor, is a signatory to an online petition entitled "Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision For All Our Families and Relationships."

SAN ANGELO, Texas — A Texas judge ruled Friday that prosecutors could use thousands of documents seized during a weeklong raid of a polygamist sect's West Texas ranch in upcoming criminal trials snip- Texas District Judge Barbara Walther heard four days of testimony on the issue in May but didn't issue a ruling until Friday. snip- first sect man to face trial, Raymond Jessop. snip- The 38-year-old pleaded not guilty to sexual assault of a child during a pre-trial hearing on Friday. snip- Prosecutors accuse him of sexually assaulting a teen who was allegedly one of nine wives. In 2004,...

Best-selling author Carolyn Jessop will receive support to care for her disabled son for the rest of his life in a settlement reached Tuesday with her former husband, who oversees a polygamous sect's enclave in Texas. Merril Jessop, 73, agreed to pay $2,350 monthly to his former spiritual wife to support the seven children in her care, with a dollar-for-dollar credit for his Social Security benefit that is currently diverted to her.-SNIP-They had eight children together before Carolyn Jessop left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in April 2003. Their oldest daughter Betty, now 20,...

A law professor nominated by President Obama to become a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a signatory to a radical 2006 manifesto which endorsed polygamous households and argued traditional marriage should not be privileged “above all others.” Georgetown University Law Center professor Chai R. Feldblum, nominated as a commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), is listed as a signatory to the July 26, 2006 manifesto “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision for All Our Families & Relationships.” The manifesto’s signatories said they proposed a “new vision” for governmental and private recognition of “diverse kinds”...

When it comes to love, we Homo sapiens are a peculiar breed: We thrill at the thought of torrid affairs while dreaming about the perfect someone with whom we can spend the rest of our lives. Some of this never-ending tug-of-war for our hearts is certainly cultural, but according to a new study it's also encoded in the finger bones of Neanderthals and the upright walking primate Australopithecus... In humans and primates, the ratio between the index and ring fingers is thought to be a telltale marker for how much of the androgen class of hormones -- and specifically, testosterone...

"Milton Mbhele turned up in a white limousine and gave each of his four brides rings and a kiss. South African law recognises traditional polygamous marriages. Even President Jacob Zuma has three wives."

.... The terms “Bountiful” and “marriage,” when used together, often conjure up a distinct image. One probably envisages a couple united by a cult leader in a short, secretive, and seedy ceremony. The bride would be imagined as young (perhaps underage), naïve, quiet and unworldly. Her husband would be depicted as older, savvier and lecherous, married already to a number of existent wives. This image does not emerge from thin air. The popular press has gone to lengths in casting Bountiful and other communities of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) as places marked by two predominant features:...

The LDS Church - and many of its members - objected last spring when HBO's hit series "Big Love" depicted a plural wife participating in a temple ceremony, calling the episode an offensive act that trivialized a sacred practice. But an entire context is needed to sanctify an image, gesture, ritual or event, said Alex Caldiero, and without its unique context, the sacred cannot be violated. "The sacred sort of protects itself against any inappropriate, any misuse or any foul play by being so protected and encased in a context," said Caldiero, artist-in-residence at Utah Valley University in Orem. "What...

Those curious about the polygamous community that has thrived on the Utah/Arizona state line for nearly 75 years may now take a guided tour through what promoters bill as "the largest and most secluded polygamist colony" in America. "Why the prairie dresses and long braids? No makeup? More than one wife?" -- all questions to be answered during "The Polygamy Experience: A Guided Tour of Colorado City." The four-hour excursion promises accounts from guides "who have actually lived and loved 'The Creek,'" the historic name for Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ...

The official Mormon religion -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- doesn't allow plural marriage anymore, but that didn't stop a local Florida State fan from lampooning the religion's polygamist past as the Seminoles prepare to travel to Brigham Young Saturday for a game against No. 7 Brigham Young. The avid FSU fan's name is Jim Lory, whose late father John Lory was a loyal Florida State supporter whom I've written about in the past. Several years ago before he passed away, John bought a giant theater marquee and put it in front of his old workshop...

When confronting the doctrinal issue of polygamy, Greg Smith posed the question; “Do you trust Father?” He taught members of the Church that as they turn to their Father in Heaven and trust in His love and mercy, the challenging doctrines of the gospel will become less of a struggle. Smith mixed humor with testimony while addressing the tough topic of polygamy to audience members during the 11th Annual Mormon Apologetics Conference presented by the Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (FAIR). The conference was Aug. 6-7 at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy. Smith said some of the...

"After months of haggling over every period, definition, connotation and allusion, the state's Safety Net Committee has released a revised guide to understanding so-called fundamentalist Mormon communities in Utah, Arizona and as far away as Missouri and Canada. The Pri mer , as the booklet is known, now has a neutral tone that no longer promotes the idea that fundamentalist Mormons, many of whom practice polygamy, are "victims" of groups who experience more domestic violence or abuse than other populations, said Pat Merkley, Safety Net Committee director. "I think we have produced the best dialogue we possibly could," Merkley said....

BEAVER, Utah (AP) -- Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is being force-fed in jail for the second time in less than a week after again refusing to eat, Arizona officials said Tuesday. Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said force feeding of Jeffs started Friday...

From Canada - a horrible crime, three teenage girls and their mother dead. Allegedly, a man took two wives while living in Afghanistan but could only claim one as he's now living in Canada. Reportedly, he has seven children with his other wife. The woman (victim) reported receiving death threats and fearing for her life in emails to relatives. Her car was found submerged with the women inside. Individuals who knew them and some family members are insisting it was an honor killing. Police sources confirmed the dramatic development in the case Wednesday, 22 days after a black Nissan Sentra...

Mormon sisters share a husband While sisters are known for their love of sharing, Mormon siblings Katie and Priscilla Churcher have chosen to share more than most in their choice of husband Travis. 15 Jul 2009 The pair live with their husband and eight children in a large house in Salt Lake City in the American state of Utah and insist they are very happy with their choice. They have three cars, a big garden, wardrobes full of stylish clothes and a mountain of toys for all their offspring. "People might think it's weird to share your husband with your...

BOSTON — Massachusetts is suing the federal government over a law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. State Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the lawsuit today in federal court in Boston. It says the federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define marriage as it sees fit.

"...cultural anthropologists know that most societies not only accept polygamy, but idealise it, while evolutionary geneticists report super-male lineages such as that of Genghis Khan which are incredibly fertile. No one suggests that the conqueror was super-human in size, rather, he illustrates how societies can be converted into a winner-takes-all game. It is not true that Genghis Khan said the best thing in life was "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." But there is a reason why many find this myth plausible. Civilisation has borne witness to the rise...

Brent Jeffs was one tired-out ex-Mormon fundamentalist last week in Denver, but still a man on a mission. Back-to-back book-signings and 17-hour days in Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Denver for Jeff's recently released memoir, "Lost Boy," alternately wound him up or wore him down to feeling like "a zombie," he said. Jeffs juggles a day job with Ultradent dental products with a personal quest. Brent, the 26-year-old nephew of Warren Jeffs, the convicted felon and former prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is determined to make known the extent of what he describes...

SALT LAKE CITY -- A small international conference is taking place in Salt Lake City. For 22 years, scholars who are fascinated with new religions have gathered to study them. They have met in the U.S. only five times, twice in Salt Lake. Even though The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't new, it generates a lot of interest. The Center for Study on New Religions (CESNUR) was created in 1988 to look at faiths in southern Europe, mostly Christian, outside Catholicism. The small group represents many countries. The members rejected terms like "cult" or "sect." The center's...

I was watching Richard Bushman on DVD speak at some conference or other, the DVD — bought at alas, a remaindered discount at Seagull — doesn’t say where the conference was, or maybe I missed that information. In any event, Bushman is a valuable resource to learning about Mormon history. He reminds us that history demands a catholic interpretation. When learning about Joseph Smith, for example, it’s just as important to learn what his critics thought of him as it is to learn what his most devoted adherents thought. And, it’s important to see all sides of an historical figure...

A polygamy advocacy organization says the New Hampshire law that is intended to assure "equal access to marriage" for all instead specifically embeds in state statutes bigotry against polygamists. According to a statement posted on the Pro-Polygamy website, when on Wednesday New Hampshire "became the sixth U.S. State to codify the legal construction of same sex marriage," it was hailed by homosexuals as a "civil rights victory." "Declaring that the new law advances fairness and equality for all, they proclaimed that New Hampshire had supposedly 'ended discrimination' for everyone," the statement said. "But the law did no such thing. Rather,...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Most Lincoln historians know about the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, but historian William P. MacKinnon focused on the little-known first Lincoln-Douglas debate in Springfield in June 1857. It specifically addresses "what was then called 'The Mormon Problem.'" MacKinnon, using his paper titled "Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Mormon Problem: The 1857 Debate" gave the Mormon History Association Conference Annual Membership Luncheon presentation May 23. Why did Lincoln and Douglas debate about Mormonism? A little background is needed. Soon after James Buchanan became the 15th president in 1857, the Utah territory became a hot political...

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois -- Though it has often been noted how difficult it was to introduce polygamy into a puritanical society, it was even more difficult to move out of polygamy, the president of the Mormon History Association said Saturday night. Kathryn M. Daynes, associate professor of history at BYU, delivered the presidential address for the association's 44th annual conference, which has been meeting in Springfield on the occasion of the Abraham Lincoln bicentennial. She is the outgoing head of the association, which selects a new president each year. Addressing the topic "Render unto Caesar: The Plight of 19th Century Polygamists,"...

New research on Mormons and media show that media are making attempts to distinguish between FLDS and LDS... A new study of newspaper coverage after the FLDS raid in Texas shows that of the 145 Spanish- and English-language articles from U.S. and international newspapers, just more than half explicitly distinguished between the LDS and FLDS, about 44 percent implicitly distinguished between the two churches and one article confused the two. Writing in Dialogue, researchers Ryan T. Cragun and Michael Nielsen conclude with this statement: "This paper detailed the two definitions of the label 'Mormon' used by the media. Until an...

The Italian media connects Mormons and polygamy nearly every time it reports about Latter-day Saints. At least that's what research of Italian coverage of the Mitt Romney campaign and the airing of "Big Love" in Italy show, a prominent religious sociologist has found. Writing in The International Journal of Mormon Studies Massimo Introvigne explores how groups are... labeled and how such labels die hard...Introvigne studied coverage of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in the first seven months of 2008 (January to July) in 50 Italian daily newspapers and 100 periodicals having a Web site. Of the articles, 99.1 percent identified Romney...

Cover    Excerpt from "The Legal Status of Women under Federal Law" - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Cover Only [PDF format, 11 kb] 1. Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Prostitution:    Excerpt from "The Legal Status of Women under Federal Law" - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - p72 [PDF format, 45 kb] 2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Segregating Prisoners by Sex    Excerpt from "The Legal Status of Women under Federal Law" - Ruth Bader Ginsburg - p75 [PDF format, 30 kb] 3. Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Rights of Bigamists    Excerpt from "The Legal Status of Women under Federal Law" - Ruth Bader...

First came traditional marriage. Then, gay marriage. Now, there's a movement combining both—simultaneously. Abby Ellin visits the next frontier of nuptials: the "triad." Less than 18 months ago, Sasha Lessin and Janet Kira Lessin gathered before their friends near their home in Maui, and proclaimed their love for one another. Nothing unusual about that—Sasha, 68, and Janet, 55—were legally married in 2000. Rather, this public commitment ceremony was designed to also bind them to Shivaya, their new 60-something "husband." Says Sasha: “I want to walk down the street hand in hand in hand in hand and live together openly and...

S Africa's dilemma: Two wives, one First Lady 24 Apr 2009 KWANXAMALALA: There’s little question who will lead South Africa after Wednesday’s national election. The real mystery lies in who will be the country’s first lady. As Jacob Zuma, the man preordained to be the country’s next president, voted in his rural Zulu homeland Wednesday, one of his two current wives stood to the side watching patiently as he was mobbed by cheering crowds and reporters. But Nompumelelo Ntuli, 34, Zuma’s newest and youngest wife, was soon attracting her own crowd of admirers. Women whispered, “Isn’t she beautiful!” as Ntuli...

"The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory." — Sun Tzu, "The Art of War." This explains why defenders of morality will lose sooner or later, in the legislature or the courts, their battle against special rights for homosexuals. Right now, they are in a pitched battle against SB 899, which would codify last year's state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. Under the civil-unions law, homosexuals had every state marriage right under the sun, but not the title; that, justices degreed,...

There’s little question who will lead South Africa after Wednesday’s national election. The real mystery lies in who will be the country’s first lady. As Jacob Zuma, the man preordained to be the country’s next president, voted in his rural Zulu homeland Wednesday, one of his two current wives stood to the side watching patiently as he was mobbed by cheering crowds and reporters. But Nompumelelo Ntuli, 34, Zuma’s newest and youngest wife, was soon attracting her own crowd of admirers. Women whispered, “Isn’t she beautiful!” as Ntuli decked out in an apricot and blue tie-dye outfit beamed happily. “Jesus...

A friend alerts us to a woman clearly ahead of her time. According to the Telegraph, a Mrs. Berliner-Mauer, of Sweden, recently revealed that she "tied the knot" with the famous wall while visiting Berlin in 1979. The blissful creature-to-creature ceremony was conducted "before a handful of guests." Clearly biased in its reporting, however, the Telegraph castigates the woman as having a "bizarre fetish for inanimate objects." Objectum-Sexuality, to be regressively clinical. But please: Bizarre? What's truly bizarre is the newspaper's own embrace of Objectosexophobia. Shame! Shame on all objectosexophobists! No doubt "wall friendly" New York and California stand ready...

Rick Santorum Was RightMeet the future of marriage in America. I have seen the future of American family law, and her name is Elizabeth F. Emens. A whiz kid with a Ph.D. in English from Cambridge University and a J.D. from Yale Law School, Emens, who teaches the University of Chicago Law School, has published a major legal and cultural defense of polyamory (group marriage). In "Beyond Gay Marriage," I showed that state-sanctioned polyamory was rapidly becoming the favorite cause of scholars of family law. Yet not until now has anyone offered so bold, informed, intelligent, and comprehensive a brief...

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...

With the decision by the Iowa Supreme Court and an enactment of a statute Vermont Legislature sanctioning same-sex marriage, a great deal of commentary, filled with understandable but unwarranted optimism, has appeared on the possibility of same-sex marriage being legislated in additional states, including New Jersey. Advocates are dismissive of the slippery-slope argument — that is, by allowing same-sex couples to marry, then any restrictions on a parent marrying his child or his couch will logically fall. Such views are easily ridiculed if not rebutted, but the next logical step in this debate — namely, polygamy — is not readily...