THE STATE OF UTAH WAS FORCED to outlaw polygamy in order to be accepted into the Union. Notwithstanding that, polygamy still thrives in the state to this day. There are pockets of it all over the state, and isolated instances of men with multiple wives with, as you might guess, multiple children as well. No one in authority does anything about it. In the southern part of the state, near where I lived for fourteen years, there is an entire town (Hildale, Utah) that is polygamous, including all its officials (along with its companion town, Colorado City, Ariz.) I drove through there many times on the way to St. George, Utah. The women, sometimes called sister-wives, were immediately recognizable, since their prescribed attire is an overwhelming tent-like dress, and even their hairdo, an ugly mop that vaguely resembles a swollen beehive (the state’s symbol), is mandated by the fundamentalist leaders of the cultish religion. I don’t imagine that the U.S. government will be moving to take away Utah’s statehood any time soon because of their continued acquiescence to polygamy, and Utah, which is 67.7% Mormon, would have to prosecute their own fundamentalist sect if they took any action against polygamy. The defense, if you can call it that, is that the men are not formally marrying but one of the wives, yet this seems to indicate that the rest are at least what is known as ‘common law’ wives. As for me, I’m satisfied with just one, and I have problems enough handling that responsibility.
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