http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,481308,00.html

VANCOUVER, British Columbia  —  The lawyer for a British Columbia man charged with having 20 wives says he'll use the same-sex marriage law as a defense.

The lawyer, Blair Suffredine, says gays can marry in Canada, so why can't a man have more than one wife. The lawyer says standards have changed.

He's representing 52-year-old Winson Blackmore, leader of a polygamous group in Bountiful, in southeastern British Columbia.

He appeared in court briefly yesterday in Creston and the case was continued to Feb. 18.

Another man from a rival polygamous group in Bountiful, James Oler, also appeared in court, charged with marrying two women. Oler is a follower of Warren Jeffs and a bishop in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Now why cant people just be allowed to have relationships with how ever many people they want of whatever nationality, race, gender etc. What harm is this guy doing that actually justify s him being charged.

^
The problem is that this looks like a sect (sp?).

 Because it makes things harder for the rest of us shmoes.

That's another thing you like, then, NintendoMan, polygamy.

No, I just hate intolerance. It is completely irrelevant if a gay guy has 20 boyfriends or a wife 20 husbands. It doesn't matter. Let people live how they want.

The problem isn't generally that a person has many wives, its that many times their daughters are forced into this life and it all becomes more of a slave-master issue more than a wife-husband relationship.

It more or less boils down to women's rights.

That's a buzz word that just won't die.

You've touched upon the heart of the issue there.  In Bountiful the older men had the power and often ran the teenage boys out of town so they wouldn't have a problem controlling the younger girls.  It was not uncommon for girls of around 14-16 to be married off to older men who already had 2-3 "wives". 

In essence the community was a totalitarian society where older men ruled supreme and no one went against their wishes.  The part where it gets tricky is that some of the girls didn't think it was wrong, while others tried to flee the community. 

If a society brainwashes (using religion in this case) the younger generation into thinking these living conditions are the norm, is it still wrong ?

Yeah polygamy is wrong, really just wrong for the explanations above.