| I agree with BaronVEsslingen. Anyone who honestly does advocate polygamy should read God's Brothel by Andrea Moore-Emmett, which gives 18 reasons as to why polygamy is and should remain illegal. The biggest issue with polygamy is that it usually involves the forced or coerced marriage of underage girls; resulting in statutory rape or even the condonement of incest and molestation by father's unto their own daughters. Although there may be "exceptions", the risk of abuse (especially in regards to children and young women) is too high among the majority to justify it. Anti-polygamy laws exist not out of religious intolerance, but out of the protection of women (especially children) from rape and molestation. The condonement of polygamy is mostly non-existent among the women involved in it as well; simply tolerated.
As for bigamy, I believe it to be illegal for two reasons: first, that it was once a grounds for divorce; and two, that in 99.9% of cases, the bigamist fails to inform their spouses of the other's existence. |