In January, a lawsuit was filed in federal court to overturn Utah's 113-year-old ban on polygamy. The action, which was prompted by the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Texas' anti-sodomy law last year, comes as no surprise. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia warned in his dissenting opinion in Lawrence vs. Texas that "if, as the court asserts, the promotion of majoritarian sexual morality is not even a legitimate state interest, none of the above-mentioned laws [against fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality and obscenity] can survive rational-basis review." Utah polygamist Tom Green -- who is appealing his convictions on bigamy on the ground that, like the men in Texas, what he does in his own home is no one else's business -- could not have agreed more.
Yes, Polygamy Is Everybody's Business
It's no 'private matter' when children are raped and intellectually starved in isolated settings.
Commentary
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday February 18, 2004 Home Edition California Part B Page 13 Editorial Pages Desk 1 inches; 50 words Type of Material: Correction
Incorrect location -- Colorado City was incorrectly said to be in Utah in a Feb. 9 commentary on polygamy. The Colorado City that was mentioned is in Arizona. Along with Hildale, Utah, just across the border, it is the site of one of the largest polygamous communities in the U.S.
But before we slide down the slippery slope of this kind of reasoning, we should consider an important distinction about polygamy -- its treatment of children.
The American West is dotted with polygamous communities, most of them "fundamentalist" Mormon sects, in rebellion against the church's renunciation of polygamy more than 100 years ago. Polygamy's negative effects on children in these communities are well documented and truly shocking. We know from firsthand accounts and court cases that child rape, incest, physical abuse, sexual abuse and child marriage are often realities.
To keep girls ignorant of the fact that these activities are wrong and illegal, intellectual and physical isolation is necessary. Children are rarely given an education past elementary school, and if girls run away, they are pursued and often beaten if they are caught.
Dorothy Allred Solomon's story is hardly unique. Solomon, whose autobiography, "Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk," was published last year, was the "only daughter of my father's fourth plural wife, twenty-eighth of forty-eight children." She describes growing up in an environment in which personal identity was erased and where violent behavior was often ignored.
A few months ago, Allen Rex Harrod, the self-proclaimed prophet of a California polygamous community, was arrested on 97 counts of child molestation. Three adults and one child have accused him of abuses spanning a quarter of a century. One of his wives is accused of observing and photographing some of these acts.
