It's just a religious freedom issue, right? Within the fundamentalist polygamist groups here in the US there is a lot of child rape and other ugliness (what do you think they do with all the unneeded male offspring?). And you taxpayers get to pick up the tab for the welfare support, medical care, etc. The polygs call it "bleeding the beast". To them you're just a chump. From Deseret News: ST. GEORGE â The star witness in the state's case against polygamist leader Warren Jeffs testified through tears on Friday that the first time she had sex with her 19-year-old husband, she "felt like a horrible person." "I didn't understand why he had done what he had done," the now 21-year-old woman said of the night a few weeks after her marriage at 14 to her cousin. "In my mind, it was evil. I didn't know he had to do that sort of thing to have a baby. I lay there shocked. I felt dirty and used." Jeffs, 51, is charged with two first-degree felony counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in conducting the marriage and counseling the girl, who grew up a member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, which Jeffs leads. The trial is under way in 5th District Court. The young woman said that while her new husband slept, she went to a bathroom and swallowed two bottles of over-the-counter pain reliever. "I didn't want to go to my mother. I thought she would judge me; think I was evil, wrong," the woman testified. "I thought about what happened, and I wanted to die." Later that night, she said, she threw up the medication. Within days, the couple traveled to Canada to visit family. During that trip, she was "offish" to her husband and tried to avoid even talking to him, she testified. "I tried to be cordial to him. I knew people were watching me and if I didn't at least show how it should have been, I knew I would suffer the consequences," she said. It was during that trip, after sharing some details of her unhappiness with a sister, that she decided to ask Jeffs to be "released" from the marriage. "I told him (Jeffs) that I never wanted to be there (in the marriage) and I couldn't see my staying there and having a family with him," she testified. "I told him 'I'm sorry I failed,' because that's how I saw it." Jeffs listened, she said, and then told her she was to return home and repent. "He said I was not living up to my vows, that I wasn't submissive," she testified. "He told me I needed to go home and give myself mind, body and soul to my husband." She testified that Jeffs dismissed her concerns, which left her extremely depressed. "He had already put me in this situation, and he was the only one who could get me out, and he wouldn't," she said. It wasn't long before the couple had sex again, she testified. "I felt the same. I didn't want it, I said, 'Please leave me alone.' I was too young to be in a marriage, I wasn't happy or comfortable and to let me alone," she said. The FLDS Church practices the concept of placement marriages, which are arranged by the sect's prophet. Couples often do not know each other or are not told who they are going to marry until a few days before the wedding. Women in the polygamous faith are taught to prepare themselves for marriage and that they are expected to raise righteous children. "A girl's entire life revolves around that (wedding) ceremony," the woman told the jury on Friday. "That's what you are raised for, what you keep clean for. The ceremony is a gate or open door to the rest of your life, to children. You belong to that husband, that man and you are to obey him completely." She testified she couldn't refuse to have sex with her husband. "For me, to question that means I wasn't keeping sweet and was going against everything I was taught my whole life," she said. "I would risk losing my salvation by not becoming one with him." Earlier in the day, the woman testified she had resisted getting married to her first cousin. "I told my mother I didn't want to marry him. I was crying quite a bit," she testified. She told the same thing to her stepfather, she said, and sought an appointment with the faith's prophet at that time, Rulon Jeffs. "I knelt down next to Rulon Jeffs and told him I was too young, I was asking to wait at least two years, or to at least find someone else other than my first cousin," she testified. "He said to me, 'Follow your heart, sweetheart,' and I was so relieved. It was as if someone finally listened to me, was giving me a chance." Following that meeting, she testified, Warren Jeffs spoke to his father and then returned to tell her that her heart was "in the wrong place." Within a few days, the girl's mother and sisters helped her make a white wedding dress. "I felt scared, emotional, trapped," she testified. "They had told me if I refused, I would very likely never have the opportunity to be married, would no longer be welcome in my father's house, no longer be deemed worthy." Her union to a cousin she couldn't bear to be near left her "horrified," she testified. Following the ceremony, Warren Jeffs placed the bride and groom's hands together and, with his hand on theirs, told the couple to "go forth and multiply the earth with good priesthood children." Among those listening to testimony Friday was Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. "I'm very, very delighted that the alleged victim has a chance to tell her story," Shurtleff told reporters as he left the courthouse. Craig Barlow, assistant Utah Attorney General, is conducting the direct examination of Jane Doe. Outside the courthouse, security remained tight. A bomb-sniffing dog was sent through the parking lot and around the building. The St. George Police Department SWAT team's sharpshooters also were positioned around the building, Sgt. James Van Fleet told the Deseret Morning News. "If it wasn't for the national attention that Mr. Jeffs is getting, he wouldn't be treated any different than other people," he said. Officials are concerned because of the numbers of both supporters and detractors attracted to the trial. A jury of seven women and five men was selected to hear the case following several days of individual interviews. The trial, which began on Thursday, continues on Monday and is expected to last at least another week.
I don't understand what this has to do with "polygamy apologists". -- the above disturbing story really has nothing to do with polygamy...just "placement marriage" and child abuse. JB PS: I have some very personal experience with issues like the above, both of my sisters were victims of "placement marriage" (though they were both 18) in the cult where we were raised.