I believe at least some of this controversy relates to laws against “cohabitation.”
No, I do not believe in polygamy or same-sex “marriage.” And yes, statutory rape and child abuse need to be prosecuted, forcefully.
But if the issue is, say, a man living with two women, or a woman living with two men, etc.I may not see a role for the criminal law for that. I have moral issues, and I pity these “couples,” but how would a law against more than two people “cohabiting in a polygamous relationship” be enforced? If there’s no attempted bigamy - no legal marriage of more than one man and one woman - how would the charges be proven?
I’m no legal expert. Maybe my facts are wrong too. Thanks in advance for any info.
Well, honestly, it’s great to hear some sane moral reasoning. I don’t care if some guy and his girlfriends ask for some sort of marriage license or not. IMO, it’s not worth buying Playboy magazine when you consider the fact that you are supporting Hugh Hefner and his cohabitating girlfriends, some of which may even have had kids through him. To me, a man cohabitating with plural girlfriends is equally detestable as a cultist who marries them. Either way, it’s rediculous that whether or not they are married is all that seems to make the difference.
As far as enforcing against polygamy, the basic concept involved was laws against cohabitation, in other words, living and presumably having sex with women who were neither your legal wife (by marriage license) or a close relative such as a mother or sister, if someone was going against those rules, it was assumed that the cohabitating individual was a polygamist and a criminal. However, for quite some time, anti-cohabitation laws have been poorly enforced or even struck down, such as in Florida. The main argument here is that since the laws against cohabitation (i.e. the methods of enforcing against polygamy) aren’t enforced, why not just drop them. As for me, if the way to encouraging traditional marriage means going against cohabitation, I personally am all for it. By all means, I am also against people cohabitating too, it’s rediculous how cohabitating outside of marriage has become so popular in recent years