Marriages between multiple people could one day become a reality, even though they currently seem “unimaginable” like same-sex marriages once did, a law professor has said.
Professor Hadar Aviram, of the University of California, spoke to the BBC as it interviewed three men who have recently entered a legal union in Columbia.
In the interview the men claim they are “just another family”.
Prof Aviram said the idea of group marriage will develop if activists want to pursue it, noting that support for the unions has increased in the past five years.
She said: “Perhaps in the 1970s, same-sex marriage was as unimaginable as group marriage is today.”
However, the BBC reports that some gay rights supporters oppose the idea, saying it “undermines past assurances that same-sex marriage would not be a ‘slippery slope’”.
During the debates on same-sex marriage in England and Wales, the Coalition for Marriage warned about such future redefinitions.
It said: “If marriage is redefined once, what is to stop it being redefined to allow polygamy?”
At the time, a blogger writing on the Guardian’s website expressed support for such unions, claiming there are some “economic advantages” for children having three parents.
The long-held Christian view of marriage is that it is between one man and one woman, and that it is a picture of Jesus’ relationship with the church.
For more on the biblical basis of marriage, read our publication.
Mike Judge
We have lost confidence in marriage as a cornerstone of society, and so we retreat to the safety of talking about marriage as a personal commitment rather than a social institution with significance beyond the couple themselves.