Pro-family advocates and traditional marriage defenders who look at approval of gay marriage as a dead end are in concern of possible push for polygamy once same-sex marriage is legalized.
Peter Sprigg, senior director for the Family Research Council's Center for Marriage and Family Studies, noted that within next 15 to 20 years, polygamists will rise to fight for legalization of polygamy and if same-sex marriage is made legal, he believes the push for polygamy could happen faster. "It's not unlikely that if we get same-sex marriage, we will see a push for polygamy 20 or 30 years from now, if not sooner," he said.
In the U.S. history, although it never made through, there had been a moment where polygamists, especially from polygamist Mormons, challenged anti-polygamy laws. Now even the Mormon church has abandoned the practice of polygamy and there has been no prominent action taken to legalize polygamy.
Noting why there hasn’t been any big push toward polygamy, Sprigg said he is in fear of gay activists opening the door to polygamy. "We have a large, well financed, 30-year-old social movement pushing for same-sex marriage," he said. "If polygamists were as well organized, as well connected in the media as homosexuals are, then we'd be seeing a push for polygamy too."
Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins agreed on Sprigg’s view. Along with other pro-family leaders, he said he has noticed future coming of the polygamy issues and other distortions of the God-ordained family and also he has noticed some human rights groups being silent about the issue, simply saying “we don’t approve it.”
Perkins said, "The fact is that once you legally open the door for same-sex couples to marry, other groups will inevitably be clamoring for the same rights too.”
