SecularPolygamy

I've been keeping up with the local, national, and cultural attitudes toward polygamy for some time now.  One thing I can not get my head around is: Why is polygamy illegal?

We all know about how Ann Eliza badgered D.C. to criminalize polygamy during the 19th century and President Woodruff caved to political pressure to disavow The Principle to gain statehood.  That was a long time ago.  We have grown as a society since then in many ways.  We have laws on the books to deal with child abuse, spousal abuse, human trafficking, neglect, etc., so using polygamy statutes to battle those offenses is akin to criminalizing schools because they house bullies.  So, I suppose the better question is why polygamy still illegal?

There is the ever-present "Ew Factor".  I can fully understand that many people don't quite understand how or why anyone would live in a polygamous family.  But is that really a cause for criminalization?  I mean, I shudder a little when I consider the sexual acts of gay men, but I support their right to engage in them because that's just what we do in a modern, enlightened society -- we put aside our personal feelings and consider the ethical ramifications of our, and others', actions.  We take a step back and look at these men, in our example, and consider that if they are upstanding citizens, not hurting anyone, not stealing, not murdering, not throwing trash in their neighbors' yards, etc., then why would we criminalize what is going on in their hearts and bedroom?  Doing so just reeks of a deeply-seated fear.  Which we had for a long time before the gays started to push back.

There is the argument that legalizing polygamy would do away with bigamy laws that protect men and women alike from marital fraud.  It would take a simple rewording of these statues to continue the illegality of marital fraud where one spouse takes on multiple marriages without the consent of the multiple partners.

Divorce law would get a lot more interesting in the light of legalized polygamy.  But, it's already more convoluted than it needs to be and this would simply be another facet of the legal contortions in divorce law.

So, what does that leave to actually keep polygamy illegal?

the anti-polygamy concerns of monogamists ?

i tend to feel that most people who fight against something that doesn't address them personaly has more to do with insecurities about what they are doing in life and a feeling that the more they see what they are doing being promoted by everyone else the more confident they are doing the "right" thing.

that detracts from "what's right for me may not be right for you" though. over half the world is fine sleeping with guys, not my thing. i don't need to push hetrosexuality on anyone to know i'm fine bedding only women in my life.

i am fine with loving more than one woman at a time in my life, i am not so insecure about having to have several women in my life to push onto others that "this must be the right way".

it could be argued that monogamists feel challenged about their lifestyle when faced with a reality that says polygamy is acceptable ... when did it become the proper way of handling issues by defending the people who are insecure about what they are doing in life? when did it become the proper way of handling issues by encouraging people to be insecure over taking responsibility of their life and being confident about their actions without being scared of what other people may think.