Except, Collier is not motivated to marry Christine and Victoria because of religious beliefs, therefore making his marriage license illegal.
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On Tuesday, Nathan and Christine traveled to the Yellowstone County Courthouse to see if they would be awarded the right to marry under the Marriage Equality Act. Collier said that the county clerks rejected the application, but then backtracked, saying they would have to ask the county attorney. In 2000, Collier legally married Victoria; he and Christine had a “religious ceremony” that year as well.
“My second wife Christine, who I’m not legally married to, she’s put up with my crap for a lot of years”.
Collier says that he became exhausted of hiding his relationship with his second wife and made the relationship “public” by appearing on the reality television series Sister Wives. Now, after the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, now seems like the ideal time to solidify his own rights. But in his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the legal argument used to justify same-sex marriage could be used by polygamist couples.
“I do not understand why it’s looked upon and frowned upon as being obscene”, said one of the women, adding that they just want “equality” under the law.
“We’re not even asking for acceptance, we’re just asking for tolerance”.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Bigamy remains illegal in all 50 states. Let us live our lives together without fear.
Although Collier apparently e-mailed the ACLU of Montana asking for support, ACLU legal director Jim Taylor said he was not aware of any email and had no opinion of Collier’s request.
“It’s two distinct marriages, it’s two distinct unions, and for us to come together and create family, what’s wrong with that?” said Christine. “She deserves legitimacy.” And it’s not just polygamy. What happens in a polyamorous situation where all three (or four or five or six or seven or eight) people want to all be married to each other? “We put n/a” for not applicable, she said. Moreover, polygamy – unlike same-sex marriage, which is a historical novelty – has ancient roots and is practiced by millions of Muslims and Africans, about 30,000 fundamentalist Mormon groups in the USA, and an unknown number of Christians around the world.
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Wilde said most polygamous families are satisfied with the judge’s ruling and believe taking it further to include multiple marriage licenses would bring them under the unwanted jurisdiction of the government.
