Banning Gay Marriage 'Would Help Polygamists'

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: October 13, 2004 12:01 am ET

(Salt lake City, Utah) Same-sex couples got some unexpected support Tuesday from a group that fights polygamy.

One of the arguments used by conservative groups which support amending the Utah constitution to ban same-sex unions has been that allowing gay marriage would open the floodgates of polygamy.

The issue of multiple spouses is an area of concern in predominantly Mormon Utah. Small breakaway Mormon sects still practice polygamy despite efforts by the state to break up the practice.

But, Tuesday a group called Tapestry Against Polygamy which helps in the prosecution of polygamists, said that the proposed amendment would actually give people who practice it a legal loophole to avoid going to court.

The amendment says: ''Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman. No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent effect.''

Tapestry Against Polygamy Executive Director Vicky Prunty said the language is too vague, especially the second part of the proposed amendment because it could invalidate domestic unions for heterosexuals.

Polygamists usually only get marriage certificates for their first marriage, any additional marriage is considered a domestic union. The state then prosecutes claiming that the domestic unions are de facto marriages and therefore polygamy.

Prunty said that if the proposed amendment passes polygamists would have a constitutional argument. Since the state could not recognize those domestic unions as marriages it could not prosecute them under laws disavowing multiple marriages.

Each of the three men vying to become Utah's attorney general have also called on voters to reject the proposed amendment. (story)

The three have differing views on whether or not gays should be allowed to marry, but they do agree on one thing: The proposed amendment goes too far.

©365Gay.com 2004