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Places in the US where polygamy is legal?
I am doing a huge project for my college sociology course and I got stuck with polygamy in the United States. Anyway, I know there are some groups in the U.S. some place that are active in the whole polygamy thing because it's based upon their religion (I think). The problem is that I was told that it was illegal in the U.S. right now. I can't really find much information on WHERE in America polygamy is LEGAL. I tried looking for what states allow polygamists but everything I found says it's illegal in all states. Could someone explain how it's illegal everywhere yet allowed in some place? Or maybe it's a city or something it's allowed in that I'm not finding (and somebody could tell me)?
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Polygamy is illegal in all 50 states. There is a difference between something being illegal and if the law is being enforced, which is the direction you might look at for your project.
Utah, which is the home of the Mormon religion, and is the largest practitioner of polygamist, does have laws against it. Most cities and towns in Utah will turn a blind eye toward the practice as long as it is not flaunted. Like many social laws if the practice is not flaunted,no one is being forced against their will and public perception is in favor the law may not be enforced.
Take laws against Sodomy for instance. Sodomy is defined as unnatural sex acts. This would include anal and oral sex. With the exception of cases of incest and rape, when was the last time someone was charged with sodomy. Their hasn't been in recent times because these acts are now acceptable practice by society.
As I said in the beginning the law in all 50 states has statutes against polygamy. Most if not all states will turn a blind eye to it if polygamy is not flaunted at them.
One of the problems I see in the prosecution is the legality of the marriages. Legally they are not married to more than one wife, they are cohabiting. If they actually had married by the lawful standard they would also be committing bigamy which would be easier to prosecute.
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I did do abit of research, and like you said, every website you go on says its illegal. But i read that polygamy is not enforced strongly in some parts. For example
" some fundamentalist Mormon sects in northermost Arizona and southern Utah continue to practice it openly and there has not been much political will in those states to do anything about it "
(according to yahoo answers [Link](Mouse over link to see full location) qid=20061127192851AAykjmV)
wikipedia has an indepth article on Polygamy in North America:
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Google'ing "Polygamy in USA" brings up a few interesting articles.
Utah also seems to be on every article, so try google'ing "Polygamy utah" .
Hope i helped :)
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Polygamy is ILLEGAL in the United States. I actually had this discussion yesterday with a Mormon family that I had met. Some friends and I were cracking jokes about polygamy at work when one of our customers informed us that it is indeed illegal in all of the United States. Now, I suppose since it's just hearsay, you can't take what I say as 100%, but this is just what I was told by a few members of a Mormon family yesterday afternoon.
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