Gay Marriage - Pandora's Box? You Decide

SF Mayor, Gavin Newsom, started it all a few years back

Some opponents to gay marriage say it will open the way to other sexual rights. Such as Polygamy. Sex with underage children, as Nambla advocates want. Or, as one gay rights icon recently went public saying, beastiality is now okay.

Pandora's Box? You decide. Let's look at polygamy...



Instead of speculating, let's look at what is happening in Canada, our neighbor, after they legalized gay marriage.



A study conducted for the Canadian federal Justice Department has recommended that Canada ditch its laws banning polygamy.

“Criminalization does not address the harms associated with valid foreign polygamous marriages and plural unions, in particular the harms to women,” the report states, as reported by The Canadian Press, who obtained the research through the Access to Information Act. “The report therefore recommends that this provision be repealed.”

The Liberals commissioned the polygamy study last winter, driven by the fear that opening the door to same-sex “marriage” would also pave the way for legalization of polygamy. The study was paid for by the Justice Department and by Status of Women Canada, and conducted by three law professors from Queen’s University in Kingston.

Lead author of the study, Martha Bailey, argued that keeping polygamy illegal served no useful purpose. “Why criminalize the behaviour?” Bailey said. “We don't criminalize adultery. In light of the fact that we have a fairly permissive society, why are we singling out that particular form of behaviour for criminalization?” (here's the reasoning) -- Bailey emphasized that other problems associated with polygamy should be dealt with. “If there are problems such as child abuse, or spousal abuse, there are other criminal provisions or other laws dealing with those problems that certainly should be enforced,” she said.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper warned that it could lead to legalization of polygamy. Leading up to the legalization of same-sex “marriage” by the ruling Liberal government last year, he said, “I believe we have to recognize the traditional definition of marriage in law, otherwise we will continue to be presented with demands that just get more and more radical.

There are some people out there who feel oppressed because the government does not currently recognize polygamous or polyandrous marriages because they show up to make their feelings known whenever and wherever there is a discussion of the same-sex marriage* issue. The pro-polygamy/polyandry folks maintain that, since marriage is a civil right that is applicable to gay and lesbian couples, it should also be applicable to polygamists and polyandrists.

One supporter of legalizing polygamy said: "I subscribe to the school of thought that teaches that there are no such things as "new" civil and human rights because civil and human rights are not invented, but rather discovered after always having existed and, that once they are discovered, they must be recognized."

Pandora's Box?

We talked about this on Monday's show which you can hear online at the link below.

Hear today's show online now (See 7/7/08)

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