You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

asparisi comments on Poly marriage? - Less Wrong Discussion

-9 Post author: h-H 06 June 2012 07:57PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (127)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: asparisi 06 June 2012 08:24:07PM 4 points [-]

Do polies want to marry each other or do such relationships not lend themselves to permanence above a threshold of partners?

I personally know one three-person poly family that consider themselves married and would be legally married if they had the option. I know of others as well.

Some changes would need to happen for poly families to get the same rights as married couples, particularly when it comes to taxes. And I assume that some hub-bub would be created about sanctity, and people getting married "just for tax reasons," and I am sure someone would reference cults trying to get tax exempt status even though it is something entirely different. I would even expect backlash from the gay community, who would be trying to make it seem like gay>poly wasn't the "slippery slope" that anti-gay marriage activists now claim gay marriage will lead to.

Frankly, it's probably easier to just try to form a non-profit group that acts like a marriage arrangement if one wants the legal benefits of marriage, with all personal assets of members going to the company before being redistributed to the members of the unit, although I haven't personally tried this.

Given the dug-in fight over gay marriage, the poly families I know aren't holding their breath. Most have just accepted that their fight probably won't even happen in this generation. As to whether or not it should happen... well, I doubt there will be any hideous consequences from allowing polyamorous unions to be recognized by the law, outside of the people shouting about it.