The mythical slippery slope to polygamy....
Margaret Kopala had an op-ed in today's Ottawa Citizen on the so-called 'slippery slope to polygamy'. I haven't seen such spurious thinking in a long time...here's my analysis.
1. Kopala starts her article by claiming that public opinion against polygamy just doesn't really count. Her evidence? Well, the Dutch are allowing a political party who favours lowering the age of consent to run for parliament. Huh?
2. According to Kopala, legalized polygamy is just around the corner. She notes that the B.C. Authorities have yet to lay charges against polygamists in Bountiful, B.C. And...that even if they did, they would lose becuase of the Charter's Freedom Guarantees -- the clause for freedom of religion. This may or may not be true - but this has NOTHING to do with gay marriage. No slippery slope here.
3. Then, Kopala looks at a three-parent case regarding a father of a child being raised by lesbians. Should he have parental rights? Well, this is not really a gay issue at all, since these sort of issues will also plague straight families, no?
4. Then, Kopala goes on to bemoan the fact that 'hundreds of activists' in the US have signed a manifesto calling for diversity in family forms. Well, so what? How on earth does their manifesto affect anything in Canada? Or in the US for that matter? And, how does that relate to a slippery slope.
The plain fact of the matter is that polygamy will stand or fall on its own merits. I predict it will never stand.
posted by GayandRight @ 9:14 PM
2 Comments:
Polygamy exists in Canada, but whether or not it will ever be prosecuted is another matter.
This reminds me of an article I read on the FRC - a homophobic organisation I am sure people here are all too familiar with - website. A sort of ultimate slippery slope arguement, of which all other slopes are but a pale reflection.
It started with the Griswold supreme court decision that declared state governments may not criminalise the sale of contraception, and went on from there to explain how this decision inevitably leads to a decay of sexual morality that leads to promiscuity, the collapse of marriage, homosexuality, a bit of bestiality, lots of pornography, the legalisation of pedophilia and finally the total collapse of western civilisation.
It presents only one way to solve this claimed decay, of course: Pass the gays-not-welcome ammendment.
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