Today's Thought

[ndkid]

Utah polygamist supports rally for Texsas ChildrenI think it would be really nifty if the ACLU and the queer community came out in big support of the Texas polygamists. This is a situation where turning the other cheek to a group that likely votes against them at every opportunity could be politically and pragmatically useful. At the worst, the

Comments

[chainkill]

I am in support of polygamy, polyamory, etc, but only among consenting adults. As soon as one or more of the participants is under age or unwilling, that's rape. I do not have any desire to see anyone coming out in support of these people.

I am also not okay with families refusing to seek medical care for children because of their beliefs. It's your religion, you can die for it, but let people take care of the children.

[ndkid]

I am leery of any system that designates an arbitrary age and says that people below that age are incapable of making decisions. Before I was 18, I felt it was a patronizing position; since I have grown older, my position has not changed. As a result, whenever a decision is made that says "that person was too young to make a decision for themselves", I have problems getting behind it, even if I would get behind it if there were a more objective criteria of responsible decision-making in place.... right results through wrong reasons and all that

[queen_fire]

A lot of countries where there are child brides are the same cultures where there are child workers. If people live shorter lives, and have more children, there are more children who need to do adult activities for the societies to survive, as they are a much greater portion of the population and older kids might need to help feed their 5 younger brothers and sisters. So the arguments about kids leading grown up lives works when people under 15 are generally 30-40% of the population, but not when they are only 20% of the population, such as here

[queen_fire]

It would be akward as their leader has been under investigation for awhile. They got in trouble at least a year ago for pushing teenage boys out of high school and out of their communities for arbitrary reasons because the math didn't work out. In other words, the old fogies didn't want to compete with young men for their mulitple brides- so the expelled 17 year olds- ie they were already on the radar before the girl called in and asked to be rescued.

Honestly, they need to interview everyone for accuracies sake but it is kind of problematic as many teens and children are very easily intimidated. There are a lot of people in abuse situations that don't ask for help, there is a lot of psychology that goes into this. Of course some people will not wish to leave but they have to defend the people who want out.