If Gay marriage is OK then should polygamy and Incest (between consenting adults) also be legal?

Question

Why or why not?

I haven't stated my opinion either way on this issue, so it is hilarious that both sides are castigating me - funny!

Some folks missed the first word of the question - "If" and then proceeded to tell me that gay marriage is NOT OK.

Other folks assume I am advocating polygam and/or incest - but in re-reading my question I have not done so.

Anyway - interesting that most folks react quickly and emotionally - as opposed to logically stating the similarities and/or differences in the above issues.

More answers please - they are enlightening and funny!

Answer 1

I think polygamy and incest between consenting adults should be legal. I don't believe there should be bans on who you love and marry. Unfortunately, we live in a closed minded society.
States should legalize all three. They hurt no one. I am not talking about churches. You can force a church to go against their beliefs. The separation between church and state, remember?
But who do love between any people hurt? Not a single soul.
Most people base their thoughts on polygamy and incest on incorrect closed minded folklore. It is time to open up our minds and laws.

Answer 2

All three subjects are entirely different, so it's tough, for me at least, to compare them. But, I think so long as it does absolutely no harm to anyone else, adults who are sane enough to make their own decisions, should be allowed to do as they please.

Gay couples are just like straight couples. They want to find their one true soul mate to spend the rest of their life in a monogamous relationship, with some also wanting to raise a family together. Definitely nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. If straight couples having all that is ok, why not gay couples? The ONLY difference between the two is the gender of the people involved, and that's where the differences end. Everything else is the same.

Polygamy....I don't really agree with it myself, but as long as ALL parties involved are sane adults, know the deal and are perfectly, 100% okay with the arrangement, then I think it's their business. I don't see how it hurts anyone as long as, like I said, everyone invovled knows it's a polygamous relationship, and have no objections to it.

As for incest, I'm not really sure what to think about that..Maybe as long as they do not have any kids, because any children would be at higher risk to have some sort of birth defect. But look at history. Her Majesty Queen Victoria was married to her first cousin, and he was possibly the absolute love of her life. The current royal family of England, as well some royalty from other countries, decends from that incestuous relationship. A long time ago, even in America, many people (esp. the upper class), tended to "keep it in the family". If you watch movies that take place over a hundred years ago, you may notice some female characters getting excited because their cousin is coming to marry them or something. That's not just fiction, that was the way things actually were back then. Anyone who's seriously into genealogy will likely find that, somewhere along the line, they are their own distant cousin, if they trace back far enough. And for the religious people, if you believe that Adam and Eve were the first two humans who ultimately led to the rest of us, wouldn't there have to be incest in there somewhere too?

Answer 3

It's REALLY simple: most of the rights concerning marriage as is (and the type of marriage that the gay movement wants in on) are centered fundamentally on the idea that there's two parties involved. That the two parties are of opposite sexes doesn't become an issue in the specifics of the law, however, marriage gives ONE person power to make medical decisions (for example). Polygamy messes that whole thing up. If one spouse is in the hospital, and the other spouses disagree, who should the doc listen to?

Answer 4

I believe anything consenting adults do should be legal. That's just me.

However, that argument that gay marriage is a slippery slope to polygamy, etc. is ridiculous. They aren't the same thing at all. I believe Stephen Colbert sarcastically mocked it best when someone pointed out that a woman in India tried to marry a snake, and that's what would happen here if we allowed gay marriage:

"Yes, I agree. If some woman in India wants to marry a snake, gay people here in American SHOULD have to answer for it."

Where do people get these crazy ideas?

Answer 5

I think polygamy should be legalized. Some cultures and groups support it, and to not allow it would be suppressing them in "the land of the free." As far as incest goes, I'd have to read more about the effets. I have heard of growth and developmentla probelms in higher rates amongst childred of incested couples, but I'd need more schientific proof before I'd say one way or the other. As long as the relationship is healthy I see no reason for the government to deny the union.

Answer 6

STOP IT WITH ALL THE BIBLE CRAP! There are some people out here still that don't live by the bible 100%, even if they believe in it. And if I'm correct I've heard that there was some people in the bible the engaged in acts such as this.
Gay marriage is ok, MARRIAGE IS ABOUT LOVE NOT GENDER (or the bible).
Polygamy is your choice, although it doesn't seem exactly safe.
Incest isn't really like gay marriage or polygamy and I don't think it should be legal.

Answer 7

That's a straw man argument.

You might as well say that because we have given ourselves the power to make laws, what's to prevent us from legalizing or outlawing *anything*? If we can make a law for this, why can't we make a law for that?

A hundred years ago the argument might have been, if we allow women to vote, then there will soon be a law letting dogs to vote. Makes no sense, does it?

The "floodgate" theory of civil rights simply doesn't make sense. We have crossed far too many threshholds that were once thought, well, unthinkable: freedom of speech and religion, the end of slavery and equal rights for all races, women's suffrage and entrance into the workplace. All these things went against centuries of tradition because of the hard work people did to bring them about.

Now, according to the floodgate theory, any one of those groundbreaking acts would have unleashed social chaos, like the polygamy and incestuous marriage mentioned in this question. But it didn't Breaking down one barrier does not break down all other barriers. Rejecting the immorality of one thing does not reject the immorality of all things. Legalizing one thing does not result in legalizing all things.

In other words, gay marriage has nothing to do with polygamy, incest, serial murder, global warming or Wal-Mart.

Answer 8

Your question is offensive for one reason: Gay marriage is about finding that special someone that makes you smile and makes you happy, and whatever happens between the two people is consenting. What you are doing with your question is relating homosexuality (a normal human condition) to polygamy and incest, when in fact they 3 actually have nothing to do with one another.

Answer 9

Firstly, you're confusing "OK," which is a morally subjective position, with "legal," i.e. what lawmakers determine to be appropriate conduct. "OK" is a determination that each person has to make on their own—I think that love between people of the same sex is just as valid as love between people of different sexes, but someone else might not. Hence, gay marriage isn't legal in most states, but for me it's OK. Polygamy and incest are unrelated and, again, their morality or immorality must be decided on an individual basis.

Answer 10

There is a difference between the two groups gay relations and gay sex are not prohibited, as polygamy and incest are.

Why are people against gay marriage? Is that because they really think that if they don't marry they don't have a gay sexual relationship?