My general view is there's nothing inherently wrong with poly (although it's not for everyone), and legal stuff shouldn't be used to prevent poly relationships. However, poly marriage is more complex.
Legalizing gay marriage is, in a sense, trivial. The transformation of the law to allow it is fairly straightforward.
But having some form of legalized poly marriage is rather more complex, and it seems to me those complexities largely arise from the fact that, when legalizing it, you have to choose whether or not marriage will be transitive. Regardless of which option you choose there, there will be some odd consequences.
Basically, consider this simple example: A, B, and C are married to each other. A and B want to divorce each other. Both want to remain married to C. What should the law do?
More fun: How should parental rights work in large poly marriages?
Joint tax filing?
etc...
I'm not saying these are unsolvable questions, but it's not a direct simple transformation of marriage the way legalizing gay marriage is. There's actual nontrivial stuff to solve/figure out/decide.
Basically, going from 2 to N opens up a larger space of possibilities.
Oh, incidentally, the notion of poly relationships has been advocated on LW several times.
Relax the condition that prevents person A from marrying person C if A is already married to B. This allows A, B, and C to marry one another, or allows A and B to both marry C but not one another, as they choose.
Most legal practices related to marriage won't be altered by this.
Some will -- the practices that assume that "A's spouse" uniquely identifies a single individual -- and those practices will have to change. For example, if the law says that in cases where A dies intestate then A's spouse inherits, then the law will have to either be mo...
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