Tag Archives: polygamy

CBS News reports: A polygamous leader accused of taking more than 20 wives, including underage girls, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to kidnapping and tampering with evidence charges stemming from a federal investigation into his community on the Utah-Arizona border. Sam Bateman’s case is the most recent example of law enforcement taking action against abuse in the sister cities of …

The Daily Beast reports: Samuel Bateman, a self-proclaimed “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, had 20 wives, many of whom were under the age of 15, according to an FBI investigation. Bateman drank wine and had sex with a male follower, Moroni Johnson, in a motel room in Lincoln, Nebraska, in front of his underage …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: A bill that would effectively decriminalize polygamy and dispel fears of prosecution for plural marriage among consenting adults sailed through the Utah Senate on Tuesday. Sen. Deidre Henderson’s bill would reclassify bigamy as an infraction, codifying the practice of the Utah attorney general’s office not to prosecute otherwise law-abiding polygamists. An infraction, like a traffic …

The Los Angeles Times reports: The roadside killings of nine U.S. citizens in northern Mexico has brought renewed attention to the scattered communities of Mormons who settled in the country more than a century ago to escape persecution. The family is perhaps best known for a series of killings perpetrated in the 1970s and 1980s, in both Mexico and the …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear arguments from the husband and four wives who star in the television show “Sister Wives,” essentially affirming that polygamy remains a crime in Utah. The appeal by Kody, Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn Brown sought remove the penalties for a practice that has caused consternation in Utah …

If you visit Teabagistan today, you’ll see the usual “See? We TOLD you!” slippery slope claims after the cast of the reality show Sister Wives cited the Obergefell ruling in the latest salvo as the state seeks to reinstate its ban on polygamous cohabitation. Which is totally a different thing than polygamous marriage and is legal in every other state, …

Via Mediaite: Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) got down to the nitty-gritty in the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch, asking Eric Holder’s potential replacement to explicate the constitutional difference between gay marriage and polygamy. “What’s the legal difference between a ban on same-sex marriage being unconstitutional but a ban on polygamy being constitutional? Could you try …

The Mormon Church has finally formally acknowledged that its founder Joseph Smith married as many as 40 women, one of whom was only 14 years old at the time. Elder Steven E. Snow, the church historian and a member of its senior leadership, said in an interview, “There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we …

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox is continuing to defend his state’s ban on same-sex marriage with a response brief that compares gay nuptials to incest and polygamy. The brief also makes the usual blah-blah procreation argument, but primarily focuses on the level of scrutiny issue. Dig into the full brief at Equality Case Files.

Eighty Utah state legislators have filed an amicus brief in which they warn the Supreme Court that upholding the Tenth Circuit’s ruling on same-sex marriage will lead to the legalization of polygamous and incestuous marriages. The Tenth Circuit did not adequately consider the consequences of its decision for Utah’s prohibitions of polygamous and incestuous marriages. If the choice of marriage …

Last December the same judge first ruled in favor of the cast of the TLC reality show Sister Wives, who sued the state over the portion of the law that criminalizes polygamy-style “religious cohabitation.” He later rescinded that ruling only to reinstate it today. Today’s decision is here. RELATED: Last year anti-gay groups went ballistic on their told-you-so slippery slope …

From the economic terrorists at One Million Moms: Joe, TLC obviously enjoys promoting immoral reality shows with unethical lifestyles! The new reality show, “My Five Wives,” promotes another polygamist family airing on Sunday evenings at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT) and 9:00 p.m. CT on TLC. The family in the show consists of one husband, five wives and their combined twenty-four children. …

Despite the tabloid headline, this trio isn’t legally married. But try telling that to the screamers out in Teabagistan today. Details.

Kenya’s Parliament has approval a bill that makes it legal for men for take multiple wives without getting the approval of their first wife. Female legislators are furious. Female MPs in Kenya have stormed out of a late-night parliamentary session in a row over the legalisation of polygamy. The law is intended to bring civil law, where a man is …

“There’s no doubt that the arguments for same-sex marriage were a template for this case. Once marriage is determined to be primarily about providing government recognition and benefits for loving, committed relationships, there is simply no principled way not to extend ‘marriage’ to everyone, no matter the nature of their relationship. People in polygamist, plural marriages are just a short …

Carlos Maza writes for Equality Matters: CNN allowed hate group leader Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), to baselessly accuse marriage equality of creating a slippery slope to polygamy after asking him whether the growing acceptance of homosexuality was to blame for the decriminalization of polygamous relationships in Utah. Once again, Perkins took CNN’s bait, reveling in …

“Recognizing that their destinies are very much intertwined, polygamists are using the same playbook as their same-sex ‘marriage’ counterparts: Step one: overturn the law. Step two: demand recognition. Step three: force acceptance. Ten years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia predicted exactly that in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court decision rolling back sodomy statutes. With prophetic insight, he pointed to the …

In fact, nowhere in the judge’s 91-page ruling do the words “same-sex marriage” appear.  What the judge DID cite is Lawrence V Texas, which overturned statewide bans on sodomy by declaring that all consenting adult Americans have a right to sexual privacy in their own homes. But the pesky truth is unimportant over at Breitbart, not even to “senior legal …

“This decision is a real war on women and children as polygamy is a practice that has historically devalued the role of women and undermined the equality of a husband and wife that has become the standard in Western Civilization. The increasing awareness of the collateral cultural and religious carnage that accompanies the redefinition of natural marriage will cause the …

Frothy totally predicted that gay marriage would lead to Utah becoming the 50th state to legalize unmarried cohabitation.