Polygamy, Gay Marriage, and Family Law in South Africa

The Slippery Slope Argument and Gay Marriage

The first chapter under review opens with a consideration of the "slippery slope" argument as it applies to gay marriage. This argument holds that legalizing same-sex marriage would set society on a short and slippery road toward legalizing morally questionable behavior such as polygamy and even bestiality. Stacey notes that most gay rights advocates dismiss this argument outright as a manifestation of prejudice rather than principled reasoning. She does not simply accept that dismissal, however, and instead uses it as a springboard for a more nuanced inquiry into how different societies have navigated the simultaneous legal recognition of both same-sex and plural marriage.

South Africa as a Case Study in Family Law

These preliminary thoughts lead into the chapter's central focus: South Africa, examined not only as an emerging democracy but as a distinctive platform for the development of gay rights and marriage law. Stacey observes that the relationship between legal recognition and lived practice is deeply contradictory in both South Africa and the United States:

"It took only cursory study to realize that de jure and de facto support for family diversity generally, and for same-sex marriage and polygamy specifically, were as upside down in South Africa and the United States as is our geography." (p. 93)

This observation captures the extreme complications surrounding each of these issues in both countries, where morality, politics, and human rights concerns frequently clash rather than converge. The result is that the relationships among the people involved become even more fraught, not least because of how those outside the relevant cultures perceive those within them.

The most important point raised in this chapter is that, although South Africa is the only country where both plural and same-sex marriages are legal, rampant prejudice, racism, and cultural misunderstanding still prevent many people from exercising these rights in practice. Stacey also highlights a critical paradox: the legalization of cultural practices such as polygamy can simultaneously undermine the equal rights of women, because the cultures that promote these practices are often grounded in inherent patriarchies.

Paradoxes of Polygamy and Public Morality

In the following chapter, Stacey turns her attention to the discrepancy between the openly professed morality of most Americans and the divergence from that morality in their private lives. She opens with the case of U.S. Congressman Vito Fossella, who refused to visit family when his gay sister was present, yet secretly maintained a relationship and fathered a child with a woman other than his wife. As Stacey writes, "Vito and Victoria Fossella represent two of the decidedly unwitting bedfellows who jostle uncomfortably beneath the patchwork quilt of contemporary family forms and values" (p. 123).

Stacey then reframes the historical record on marriage itself, pointing out that polygamy has historically been far more prevalent than monogamy, which was practiced by fewer than one quarter of the world's societies. This context complicates the assumption that monogamous marriage is the universal human norm, and sets up her return to the South African case.