The Results are In...

...And they are fascinating. i'm sure most, if not all of you who ever read this had time to read/participate in the semi-scientific poll on the right column of this blog that has been up for a few months now. i did take Statistics in high school, so i'm aware that it's not the most unbiased random sample, though i have quite a conglomerate of vastly different associates and many of them had friends take it whom i do not know. It'll serve our purposes.

i start the apologies here:

If you disagree that it moderately represents our country, that's fine. However, i think the conclusions largely hold true, regardless of the exact numbers. i also apologize if the following conclusions grossly misrepresent you if you took the poll or if it bothers you to realize some of things i'm about to point out. This is possibly inflammatory. The following is intended to incite discussion, not conclude it...


Now. As to be perfectly clear, i will take you through each question and the conclusions. Questions:

Should marriage be legislated by moral constraints in the US?
What is the best way to determine who should be able to marry?
Should first cousins be allowed to marry in the US?
Should brothers and sisters be allowed to marry in the US?
Should Aunts/Uncles be able to marry their blood-related nieces/nephews in the US?
Should parents be able to marry their blood-related offspring in the US?
Should men/women be able to marry more than one person in the US (polygamy)?
Should same sex marriage be legal in the US?

With the exception of question 2, each question provided the options of:

Yes
No
State Issue- In my state, Yes
State Issue- In my state, No


If you read current research on the topic, you'll find that first cousins can marry and produce healthy offspring. This is why many states allow it. Additionally, it has been argued by many that sex is not the only reason to get married, and in fact no current laws require it or monitor it. Many have argued that couples have less sex after marriage, and there are certainly people who cannot have sex due to health or handicap concerns. All of the questions were about marriage laws, and not sex laws, which maybe should be discussed later.

This brings me to my first major point: every instance in questions 3 through 8 discuss whether or not to allow the marriage of one or more persons to another. All of them are strictly moral decisions. You're welcome to argue the point, but each and every one of them, whether you believe yea or nay, in this country or your state, it's a moral judgment call.

Why so interesting? In question 1, only 38% of the people said they think marriage should be legislated by moral constraints. However, a no answer on any of the questions that followed was a moral constraint. Guess what percentage would ban marriage based on moral constraints for the following groups:

First cousins: 84%
Brothers and sisters: 96%
Aunts/uncles and blood-related nieces nephews: 99%
Parents and blood-related offspring: 92%
Polygamy: 74%
and...
Same sex: 26%

So, the 72% who say no to moral constraints on marriage in the legal system? There's been a lot of talk in the media about "legislating morality." My suspicion for quite some time has been that many more people are comfortable with doing just that than will readily admit or even realize.

Aside from the final question on same sex marriage (which like it or not falls into the same category as the other questions as a moral decision), the majority of people who don't want the government going around legislating morality when it comes to marriage, are willing to say, "well, except here and here, and maybe over there. What? Gay marriage, no leave that one alone. i don't like forcing people to legally conform to my morals or someone else's."

i'm not passing judgment here. i'm merely asking everyone to stop and think about what it means to say one thing over here, and the opposite over there.

On top of all this, i find it fascinating that so many people are down on the cousin lovin' (84% oppose) and that more people are opposed to aunts marrying their nephews (99%) than parents marrying their own offspring (92%). This compared to the 26% ready to throw a parade for the polygamists and 74% for same sex marriage. Again, my opinion isn't relevant or nearly as interesting as those numbers.

Question 2, about the best way to determine who should be able to get married has its own fun intricacies. The options were:

Only an age requirement: 66% in favor
Parental consent: 6%
Psychological evaluation: 6%
No requirement: 24%

Side-stepping the issue of the moral judgments involved in psychology, 72% were in favor of deciding this on the basis of age or parental consent, both moral constraints. Some societies believe 12 is the age of reason, others 16 or 18. In the US, you are able to reasonably choose a political candidate or go to war at the age of 18, but cannot reasonably choose to consume or not consume alcohol until the age of 21. Again, the 72% in favor of moral constraints here in qeustion 2 is nearly twice that of those who said they believed the opposite in qestion 1. This is fascinating.

Additionally, while the age varies from state to state, between 14 and 18, and most states allow younger with parental consent, what makes this age magical? It can be argued that many people over the age of 18 do not posses the mental faculties that prepare them for marriage, or perhaps parenthood. Mentally handicapped people and people with psychological problems can legally marry. And apparently, you are more prepared to get married if your parents (who may or may not be trained psychologists, the law is quite nonprejudicial here) say so. The state often decides on a case by case basis (and psychologists are always part of this process) whether to try children as adults for crimes. Why not for marriage? Because age is not a magical number that automatically presents a person with reason and cognitive ability.

Maybe these were too many issues to tackle and maybe my conclusions are entirely erroneous, but my hope is that you can look at both these numbers and your own beliefs, as well as the beliefs of your friends and begin to tackle these questions in a new way. If you took this poll and are completely satisfied with your answers with no struggle or hesitation, i won't hesitate to say that you have a lot of work to do. Even i struggled with this poll and i wrote it.

Please feel free to respond to this in part or in whole. My sincere thanks to the people who participated, both in the poll and in the process of critically thinking about these topics.