If gay marriage is legal, what about polygamy?
That question was a hot topic among pundits and columnists during this week’s Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Many thought-leaders believe that if the Supreme Court case directly or indirectly expands the definition of marriage to include same-sex partners, the legalization of polygamous marriages would logically be next on the agenda.
Former Cincinnati mayor and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell claimed on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” that gay marriage would lead to polygamy. “[M]aking a decision based purely on love is putting us down a slippery slope,” Blackwell argued. “What about the person who loves two women and wants to engage in polygamy?”
In an appearance on MSNBC, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council claimed that if government determined “people ought to be able to marry who they love,” it would set America up to be overrun by polygamous immigrants who “immigrate to this country from a country that allows multiple spouses.”
A CNN.com commentary co-authored by Harvard law professor Robert P. George, Rhodes Scholar Sherif Girgis and Ryan T. Anderson of the Heritage Foundation warned that if the Supreme Court finds that marriage is “simply about recognizing bonds of affection or romance,” then “the increasingly common phenomenon of group (‘polyamorous’) partnerships” could be recognized as a marriage.