Old Orchard Beach, Maine --- Pro-polygamy activists are amused by a recent study about a possible genetic implication of polygamy. On June 17th, the Associated Press (AP) reported that a neuroscientist at Emory University, Larry Young, had published a study in the current issue of "Nature," pertaining to polygamy and monogamy. The study involved voles, small creatures similar to rats. 
 
Young noted a social difference between one species of vole and another. Meadow voles pro-create in polygynous pairings, whereas prairie voles tend to have exclusively monogamous pairings. The observation was significant because, as the AP reported, "fewer than 5 percent of mammals are monogamous." 
 
Young analyzed the genetic makeup of the two species. He discovered that the polygamous voles do not have certain extra biological receptors in their brains which the monogamous voles do have. 
 
Monogamous voles were not perceived as "mutants" for having the extra receptors. Yet the polygamous voles were treated as though they were somehow "missing" the extra receptors.  
 
Gene-therapy was applied to the polygamous voles. They were injected with an otherwise harmless virus to "install" the extra receptors. The results which Young reported suggested that the infected injected polygamous voles were transformed into monogamists. 
 
The AP declared, "The research helps shed light on monogamy -- a rare social behavior -- and hints that perhaps specific genes could play a role in human relationships." 
 
Extrapolating the results to humans, it suggests that individuals who have similar extra receptors would be pre-disposed toward having, as the AP reported, "sexual preference for a specific partner." Conversely, it suggests that individuals who are "missing" such extra receptors may be genetically pre-disposed toward a "polygamous orientation." 
 
That amuses pro-polygamy activists. 
 
Mark Henkel, national polygamy advocate and founder of the Christian polygamy organization, TruthBearer.org ( www.TruthBearer.org ), noted, "Liberal homosexual advocates have long tried to assert the genetic 'born-that-way' argument in claiming their demand for equal rights. But most of them oppose equal rights for adult polygamists." 
 
Henkel chuckled, "This study gives pro-polygamists a humorous way to expose the 'hateful' hypocrisy of every 'bigoted, intolerant, polygaphobic' homosexual advocate who would deny the civil rights of freely-consenting adult polygamists. It shows that they don't really believe that everyone -- including polygamists -- should all have equal rights." 
 
Henkel has some support for that point even at the U.S. Supreme Court. 
 
The case of Romer v. Evans, in 1996, was touted as a victory for the civil rights of people with a purported "homosexual orientation." U.S. Justice Antonin Scalia dissented the majority's decision, noting how it pertains to anti-polygamy laws. 
 
Scalia declared, "Polygamists, and those who have a polygamous 'orientation,' have been 'singled out' by [anti-polygamy laws] for much more severe treatment than merely denial of favored status... [Romer v. Evans] suggests that these provisions are unconstitutional; and that polygamy must be permitted in these States... --unless, of course, polygamists for some reason have fewer constitutional rights than homosexuals." 
 
Henkel, not one to rely on the "polygamous orientation" argument, joked, "Imagine the uproar if homosexual voles had been modified into heterosexuals." 


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Bibliographic URLs:

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2004/06/17/nation_world/news02.txt 
 
http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jun/06172004/nation_w/176307.asp 
 
http://www.polygamy-church.org/law/rights/Romer-v-Evans.htm 
 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0004 
 
http://www.truthbearer.org