Though it was kind of what I expected, it was nevertheless disturbing to actually see it. For quite some time I had anticipated the day when my youngest daughter, like myself, her older sisters, and countless other women throughout history, would be a bride and become a wife – a legally, lawfully wedded wife – with a husband. Yet, here was the official Utah State marriage license with the words “bride” and “groom” or “husband” and “wife” nowhere to be seen on the paper. Instead, my daughter was simply listed as “spouse number 1” and her husband-to-be in the “spouse number 2” space. This might as well have been a boring legal contract between “the party of the first part” and “the party of the second part” or the ceremonial joining of “thing one” and “thing two”. Continue reading →

Since the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage there have been questions raised about whether polygamy will eventually become legalized. I have found some of the arguments put forward in a Standard Editorial insisting that this would never happen rather disturbing, but not for the reasons you might expect. Continue reading →

Forty years ago, I studied sociology as a college student. I distinctly remember studying what was termed “social deviance”. As the term implies, this refers to behaviors or practices which “deviate” or are outside the accepted norms of society. At that point in time, and for all of known history preceding that, homosexual behavior/lifestyle was universally and unquestionable considered socially deviant behavior. Same-sex marriage was unthinkable. As I watch and read the news these days, I find myself repeatedly shaking my head in bewilderment and confusion. How, in a few short decades, did something change, not just from being considered “deviant” to becoming socially acceptable, but now legally sanctioned, something to be proud of, and something that must now be celebrated by all? Continue reading →