Fight Bigamy

Bigamy Jeopardizes Traditional Institution of Marriage

Bigamy more directly jeopardizes the traditional institution of marriage, and more than morality is in play. Recordkeeping by states, the safety and well-being of children, and the stability of the family unit are all potentially implicated by bigamous relationships. Bigamy also finds no widespread tradition of tolerance, either in our country's recent or more distant past. Society sees bigamy as morally wrong. Bigamy   has ever been protected by our society – to the contrary bigamy has always   been illegal, and a basis for marital dissolution.

From: The Virginia Supreme Court Strikes Down the State's Fornication Law, Indicating that Other States' Antiquated Laws Will Fall If Challenged and The Consequences of Lawrence vs. Texas; Joanna Grossman

Is It Polyamory or Bigamy?

Bigamy

Bigamy is against the law because it involves more than one legally recognized relationship. Basically, a bigamist is a person who is married under the law to more than one person at the same time. Most of the time, the people who are in relationships with a bigamist are not aware that the law is being broken.

Bigamy tears apart relationships, trust, and the way the world is viewed when the truth is finally revealed.

Bigamy is typically based on broken relationships and an inability by the offending party to end one relationship before starting another one.

Polyamory

Polyamory is a lifestyle that most people do not understand and most believe is illegal. Polyamory is a lifestyle that involves multipartner relationships and families. These relationships are not illegal because they usually do not consist of more than one, if any, legally recognized relationships. Many people believe those that lead a polyamory lifestyle one of bigamy and unlawful interactions, but it’s really a subculture of consenting adults. Simply put, there is nothing unlawful about the polyamory lifestyle.

People who really do not understand it at all often criticize the polyamory lifestyle.  Because being a polygamist and bigamy is so closely related in most people’s minds, polyamory is looked upon as amoral and unlawful. Polyamory is also known as being a swinger. A couple or an individual who has more than one   intimate relationship practices polyamory. While these relationships aren’t always sexual, a good percentage of the time sex is involved. What separates a polyamory from a bigamist is the consent or knowledge of all parties that there is more than one intimate relationship being nurtured, and often all parties participate in each relationship, and bigamy is against the law.

Polygamy

A polygamist is sort of the middle ground between polyamory and bigamy. A polygamist is a person who has more than one mate at a time, but not legally recognized  relationships. A polygamist often will have one legally recognized relationship and then have a few “secret” relationships that he nurtures with the understanding that all of the relationships are monogamous in nature. Just like the victims of bigamy, the victims of a polygamist are often hurt and betrayed when the truth comes to light.

So, a polyamory lifestyle is the way to go for individuals who want to maintain more than one relationship at a time. It’s the honest polygamy, and while many may question its moral implications, at least it is honest. There is nothing wrong with wanting to get to know people and experience things with a group or more than one person, but it’s not okay to hurt people in the process. Those who practice polyamory get to experience the same things as the dishonest, but they can still sleep well at night. And, while it may not be for every one, it works for them!

Polyamory will probably be hotly debated and widely misunderstood as long as it’s  around. But, most people become a little bit more accepting when they realize the differences between all of these words and lifestyles that are easily mixed up by the uneducated.

From Search Your Love

Definition of Bigamy

Bigamy

The crime of marrying during the continuance of a lawful marriage. Bigamy is not committed if a prior marriage has been terminated by a divorce   or a decree of nullity of marriage . In the United States if a husband or wife is absent and unheard of for seven (or in some states five) years and not known to be alive, he or she is presumed dead, and remarriage by the other spouse is not bigamous. It is not necessarily a defense to a charge of bigamy that the offending party believed in good faith that he was divorced or that his previous marriage was not lawful.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1878 that plurality of wives (polygamy), as originally permitted by the Mormon religion, violated criminal law and was not defensible as an exercise of religious liberty. The Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy in 1890, but the practice has persisted among some, although it has been rarely prosecuted.

What is an annulment?

Annulment is a court declaration that a marriage is invalid or nonexistent. Courts annul marriages where fraud bigamy, impotence, or other serious problem has occurred. It means that the marriage never occurred legally. Church annulments are not the same as legal annulments.

What is bigamy?

Bigamy is the condition of having two wives or two husbands at the same time. A marriage in which one of the parties is already legally married is bigamous, void, and ground for annulment. The one who knowingly enters into a bigamous marriage is guilty of the crime of bigamy. Unfortunately, it is seldom prosecuted unless it is part of a fraudulent scheme to get another's property or some other felony. Having several wives at the same time is called "polygamy" and being married to several husbands is "polyandry."