DOMA and Prop 8. Both History.

[eppie]

Your argument then makes no sense to me. Either we say men and women are equal enough, or we don't - mono vs. poly marriage is not the core of that issue. If we sanction straight marriages as okay, on the basis that the men and women in them are equal, then why could those exact same men and women not engage in polygamous marriages?

-Jester

Let me phrase it differently.
I modern western societies we want men and women to be equal. We give them the same right and we try to let them participate in our workforce in equal shares. We know there are differences between men and women but our modern society is so evolved that we find it unfair that just because women carry babies they for example cannot have jobs or so.
The only issues we have with polygamy is among religious groups who don't share our same equality ideas. They only consider their god when it comes to rule-making and it is obvious that their set of rules is based on men coming before women.

As I say again; your argumentation is theoretically correct. A polygamous marriage between people who are really equals should be OK. But practically we both now that more than 99% of polygamy cases are from sub-society in which women are second grade citizens.
A state (in my opinion) should also protect its citizens from other citizen who psychologically pressure them into doing things, also when that is part of a religion.