Worth the repost.

[hoveringsombrero]

From a link just posted in another community, this is an EXCELLENT article. It's a little Canada specific but it's topical.

And it addresses a point I keep ranting on to J, regarding the Bountiful flds group, but also applicable to the recent issues in Texas. And I quote (bolding mine):

"If the RCMP were to arrest Blackmore and his followers under the polygamy laws, their polygamy would be treated as proxy for what many believe is child and spousal abuse. In addition to being a cruel and unfair portrait of poly people, it's lazy police work. Laws against child and spousal abuse are on the books. If the folks in Bountiful are abusers, arrest them for that. Leave poly out of it."

Comments

[deathtoearth.livejournal.com]

It's a tough issue in a variety of ways. At this point I think it is the intention of the government to attack issues of abuse in Bountiful without using anti-polygamy laws. A lot of people speculate that those laws would not survive a constitutional challenge. I think everyone in Canada would just as soon avoid constitutional challenges on this issue, because it will turn into a total clusterfuck. (Er... pardon any perceived pun... *hangs head in shame*)

Folks on the right will jump all over the issue to prove that the supreme courts upholding the rights of gay marriage really *was* a slippery slope to legalising polygamy, people on the left just don't want that question brought out and argued over again. The Attorney General and police and courts do not want to take a huge police action against Bountiful, bring up a whole bunch of charges, and then have the whole thing tossed on a constitutional challenge. In short, I just don't see that happening.

If any charges ever are brought against FLDS in Bountiful, it will be under laws other than the anti-polygamy ones.

I do agree that the simplest and most elegant route toward supporting any oppressed individuals in polygamist marriages would be to give those marriages legal standing. Alas, we are not yet enlightened enough to see how that serves the interests we claim to be protecting.