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Thursday, June 05, 2008
Maggie Gallagher :: Townhall.com Columnist
Parents' Rights Trump Polygamy
by Maggie Gallagher
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But more than half of 15- to 19-year-old Hispanic girls in this country have been pregnant. Is anyone upset enough about that fact to move decisively to protect them from early sexualization? For those girls the answer is: Ship them more condoms and have more teachers demonstrate to them how to be sexualized at lower government cost (because babies cost real money).

If the FLDS sect down there in Texas specialized in sexually connecting 16-year-old boys to 16-year-old girls (or, for that matter, boys), there would be nothing in Texas law, or the rest of the American culture, that would give anyone pause. They would fit right in.

That's what made this Texas case so confusing to me and to others. Yes, we have polygamists in this country, and we don't want to encourage polygamy in this country. Plus, polygamy is so fundamentally unattractive to women it is very hard to sustain without isolating young girls (and forbidding them access to divorce). So crackdown on those bad guys!

But we also don't want to encourage the government to think it gets to decide, based on almost no evidence at all, when parents are allowed to care for our own children.

Meanwhile, we have a culture so sexually debased that if these weird, pseudo-Mormon heretics hadn't called it polygamy -- and had also waited until the girls turned 16 to hook them up -- nobody might've even noticed.
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About The Author

Maggie Gallagher is a nationally syndicated columnist, a leading voice in the new marriage movement and co-author of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially.

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(132 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Jun 7, 2008 - 6:04 PM EST
hypocrisy all over the place
MG and several posters here agree that the TX CPS overstepped their authority by taking ALL the children away.
According to G, parental authority is sacrosanct, unless abuse is evident.
Except she doesn't feel that way about GAY parents.

Marriage is preferable for the support of children, which I agree is true.
Except for gay parents.
Marriage is an option for adults without the intention or ability of children, except for gay adults.

Children and what's best for them, I agree are responsible loving parents.
However, simply being one/man and one woman is no indicator that will happen. It's an assumption.

There is also agreement that slaves or those living under Jim Crow conditions were happy with the arrangement.

But many people have convinced themselves that gay people are NOT happy, and require the intervention or coercive inducements of heterosexuals to convince of this.

Such inconsistent applications, rather than equal ones is the problem. The standards of examining these issues separately AND from what socio/political context is important, but ignored.
A majority here is either too stupid to see that, or assumes the exception to that is.

Gallagher is guilty of such inconsistent applications, and none of us need be at odds if equal standards and applications WERE applied.
So, why aren't they?
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Reply # 2
Date: Jun 7, 2008 - 3:01 PM EST
A new conservative constituency?
I had no idea that so many conservatives were so supportive of polygamy (as long as it is based on religion). I now see where a new conservative constituency can be found--among polygamists and polygamist wannabees. The latter is probably a big part of the population, so I say, go out there and organize those people! Get them registered and get out the vote! McCain won't have the stones to acknowledge this support, but you can vote anyway.

Maybe if there were lots of gay polygamists, you'd let them play too. Ya think?
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