A thought occurred to me today as I skimmed an article in a rationality forum where the subject of gay marriage cropped up; seeing as the issue has been hotly contested in various public fora and especially the courts, what about poly? After all, many if not all the arguments for gay marriage apply to poly marriage as well.
Questions for LWers who are currently in a such a relationship, or have an opinion to share:
Do polies want to marry each other or do such relationships not lend themselves to permanence above a threshold of partners? Should polies campaign for the right for a civil union anyway? what are the up and down sides of this? etc
I don't think it makes the inbreeding effect go away completely, but it seems worth considering if there are other contributing factors to the observed effect. (Probability less than 50%, but I think worth tracking.)
I would be careful about dismissing "methodological points". The methodological standards are there for a reason.