Readers discuss its role in the gay-marriage debate.

In his latest piece, William Saletan attempts  to differentiate gay marriage from polygamy by positing jealousy as an innate human emotion that dictates a universal desire for monogamy in hetero- and homosexual relationships alike.

In a forceful rebuttal, ajaxafc turns Saletan's invocation of "nature" back upon him:

Saletan's reasoning is weak and tendentious. His argument that "nature," by providing humans with the inherent impulse of "jealousy," limits marriage to only two individuals seems to conveniently neglect the fact that "nature" also provides the appropriate equipment – i.e. compatible parts to perform the defining act of the relationship in the first place – to members of the opposite sex. But why should we obey nature when it comes to our psychological impulses, but not our physiological makeup?



In fact, this is precisely Krauthammer's argument: when you stare straight in the face the glaringly obvious physiological contradiction that is a homosexual relationship and choose to ignore it, what is keeping us from ignoring the other limitations "nature" places on marriage, such as the psychological ones?

By the very terms of the debate, DoctorPedantic thinks Saletan is playing into the right-wing's hands:

Gay marriage has nothing to do with polygamy. Saletan is buying into the fearmongers' "slippery slope" argument by trying to explain why one can support gay marriage while still opposing polygamy. But one has nothing to do with the other.



There are myriad constitutional, logical, humanistic, and yes, moral reasons to support gay marriage. At its core, the issue can be seen as one of flat-out gender discrimination… Gay marriage comes down to this: I am a man. If my partner (whom I refer to as my husband, laws be damned) were a woman, he and I could get married. The only reason he can't marry me is because he is a man. … We can get into a debate about suspect classifications and what policy justifications supposedly exist, but at the end of the day can you think of one other act that, if performed by a person of one gender is illegal, but if performed by another is not just legal but actually encouraged by the government?



The debate about gay marriage should be conducted on its own merits. So should the debate about polygamy. By linking the two of them, Saletan buys into the Rick Santorum view of the world, in which accepting homosexuality is somehow going to lead to bands of Satan-worshippers doing unspeakable things to their little sisters' puppies.



Let's discuss these issues one at a time, doing what's right without worrying about where the "slippery slope" may end.

Looking at the gay marriage/polygamy debate through the prism of jealousy isn't especially compelling, saysnot_abel:

People who want traditional marriage promise (essentially) to restrain all kinds of innate human tendencies. Imagining that some polygamists might promise to restrain from exercising their tendency to jealousy hardly seems a great stretch. The probability that many of them won't succeed in keeping their promise isn't a good argument against their rights, given the rates at which traditional marriages fail.



If one accepts Saletan's arguments here, then proponents of gay marriage would need to show that gay marriage offers equivalent societal benefits to traditional marriage. That may be possible to do, but I'm not sure that it's a reasonable burden to impose.

ceptri agrees with the end result but takes a more legalistic approach:

The best argument to differentiate gay marriage from polygamy has to do not with marriage, but with divorce. When marriage is between two people is it very easy for the state to determine whether that marriage is ongoing or not. And if a marriage dissolves, we have methods for dividing property, that while argumentative, are at least possible because the marriage no longer exists. With marriages of multiple people, how does the state determine the "state" of the marriage, if one person leaves, is the marriage over? Should alimony and division of property take place, what if 1 person in a 10 person marriage leaves? You can see that it is impossible. And I like to think that this, is the simplest and best argument for making a division between gay marriage and polygamy.

Kiz echoes this sentiment, concluding that "the mess of legal rights for multiple spouses is the primary reason (and it's an excellent one) for the state to block multi-party marriage."