Regardless of the closed eyes of a legal system which refuses to acknowledge it, the family of the new Millennium

is here. This family cannot be judged by the same rules as the old tried and true, one house, mom and dad, two point three kids, and a dog named Bosco, or some equally ubiquitous pet. This family is something different, it may live in an apartment, or in Manhattan during the summer and Fort Lauderdale during the winter. It may have two dads, two moms, or any number or variety of variables. However it is nonetheless a family. Regardless of whether or not we want to accept the new family, it is here and it is here to stay. In this series of articles we will explore each of these family groups, the type of family they are and the benefits each has over the others, as well as common problems they may have. 1. Traditional Marriage: 2. Same Sex Marriage: 3. Pluralistic Marriages:

Polygamy Polyandry Polyfidelity

4. Familial Templates

Polyamory The Corporate Family:

Traditional Marriage
Traditional marriage is defined as a marriage between one man, and one woman. This form of Marriage is recognized as being a monogamous one (Non monogamous traditional marriage being defined as Polyamory for the purposes of this article). Traditional marriage is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of marriage, as it is found in most every culture around the world and in every time period within those cultures. The strengths of this form of marriage are many and undeniable, a few of them are. 1. Legal recognition; being the only form of marriage recognized in most states of the United States, and most countries around the world. This state of marriage generally brings with it legal benefits in tax codes, and social frameworks designed to serve and encourage it. 2. Protection from disease; by definition being a monogamous relationship (non monogamous relationships being here classified as Polyamory) the likelihood of

catching one of the many virulent sexually transmitted diseases is reduced to almost non existence. 3. Certainty of progeny; this is not necessarily certainty of producing progeny, but certainty of knowledge as to the biological parentage of every child in the relationship. Disadvantages of the traditional marriage and yes there are as many of these as there are strengths. 1. Legally binding; along with the advantages of being legally bound in marriage, there are disadvantages to this state. While a one income earning household is able to count the other spouse as a dependant lowering the tax burden by a fair amount, with two income earners their incomes are added together to determine the tax bracket. Leading to the traditional argument that with the income of a fireman and a teacher, married, they go up a tax bracket and end up paying a sizeable chunk of their income in taxes. 2. Pressures of family on too few shoulders; most families nowadays require two income earners in order to stay afloat. This leads to a few obvious problems when it comes to caring for children, or even to securing the home. Frequently in order to solve this problem families avoid having children until their later years which is harmful for both the mother and the child, and generally have just one or possibly two children. As far as security of the home the only recourse most families have is to contract with a security company to watch over their home while they are away at work or on vacation an unreliable method at best. 3. Unresolved arguments; arguments between two people can go back and forth for years festering and growing until fighting breaks out possibly resulting in divorce, or worse a domestic dispute situation.

Same sex marriage? What does this mean to you? Is it a wonderful expression of love between two people who have overcome gender in pursuit of love? Or is it a crime against god?

Same Sex Marriage

A same sex marriage is as the name implies a marriage either between two men, or two women. Again this form of marriage is recognized as being a monogamous one (non monogamous marriages being defined as Polyamory). There are in fact many more weaknesses involved in this particular form of marriage than there are strengths, this is not to say this writer has any problem with this form of marriage or anyone who practices it, but undeniably it has a lot of issues within this country. However it is nonetheless the second most common form of marriage in the United States. The strengths of this form of marriage are.

1. Protection from disease; by definition being a monogamous relationship (non monogamous relationships being classified as Polyamory) the likelihood of catching one of the many virulent sexually transmitted diseases is reduced to almost non existence. 2. Trendy; believe it or not this is currently the in thing in many groups, which brings with it many privileges. Thus it must be considered to be one of the strengths of this form of marriage, even though I know I will get piles of hate mail in my in box for saying it. 3. Protected; though this form of marriage is not legally recognized by the majority of US states. It is protected under hate crimes legislation which makes it an additional penalty for anyone to attack someone involved in this form of marriage. The disadvantages of same sex marriage are vast. The first thing we can begin with is a disadvantage that same sex marriages share with traditional marriages. 1. Unresolved arguments; arguments between two people can go back and forth for years, festering and growing until fighting breaks out possibly resulting in divorce, or worse a domestic dispute situation. 2. Inability to procreate; there are of course in modern times many ways to get around this particular problem, there is artificial insemination for lesbian couples, and host mothers for gay couples. However the artificial insemination for women is chancy and can get expensive if it takes to many visits before it catches, and hiring a host (or surrogate) mother is extremely expensive, sometimes costing as much as 80,000 dollars for a reputable one to bear a single child. 3. Social stigma; there is still in most circles a social stigma attached to being gay, and this is exacerbated in the current political climate when one refers to same sex marriage and the laws that must be changed in order to legalize it. 4. Lack of Legal Recognition; without legal recognition this form of marriage can frequently result in serious legal complications if a death occurs, resulting in children being removed from homes, and spouses being unable to collect their loved ones remains or to visit in the hospital before death.

Pluralistic Marriage. One of the oldest forms of marriage is the idea of the pluralistic marriage, In modern times however, this form of marriage has taken some heavy hits, even to being declared a crime in some countries. Here we discuss some of the benefits, and some of the advantages.

Pluralistic Marriage
This overall heading covers a number of different but similar forms of marriage including Polygamy, Polyandry, and Polyfidelity. We will go down the list defining each one individually and listing their individual strengths and weaknesses. The one uniting classification of these types of marriages is that they all involve multiple rather than individual adults.

Many classify the entirety of these relationships as being under the term Polyamory which by the strictest definition of the word is true, as Polyamory simply means multiple loves. However for the purposes of this article I am defining Polyamory as a template which can be applied to any form of marriage rather than as a specific type of relationship. This change in definition could I believe lead to an ease of tension within the poly community as far as definitions are concerned. Many of the advantages and disadvantages among these forms of marriage are the same. So I will list those here, and list the individual advantages and disadvantages under each marriage type. Some of the strengths of this particular form of marriage are as follows. 1. Multiple income sources; all forms of pluralistic marriage have one thing in common, they have multiple income sources to draw from, thus making them far more financially secure than a single income household. Also this large number of revenue streams frequently creates a great deal of wealth for the people involved as they are able to use many of the same items over and over again clothes, DVDs, books, appliances, and many other items to numerous to mention here. 2. Purchases in bulk; again this is financial in nature. With the number of items available to be purchased in bulk at a far reduced price over individual pricing it is not surprising that many people involved in pluralistic marriages shop at places like Sams club for most of their goods, or purchase direct from the factory if their numbers are large enough getting a truly stupefying discount. This again allows these forms of marriage to live in a lifestyle that would be considered wealthy by most modern standards. 3. Division of Labor; with the much larger number of adults in these forms of marriage it allows for a greater division of labor based on inclination and ability. The phrase Many hands make light work was almost tailor made for these forms of marriage. 4. Security for the Children; In the event of a death of one parent, it is rarely as much of a tragedy for this form of marriage. While the death of a parent is always a heart wrenching experience for a child, with this multitude of parent s security is still in obvious existence after the death as there is always another parent to take up where the last left off. 5. Home security; in a pluralistic marriage the home is almost never empty providing much greater home security than anything that can be offered from Security Companys nowadays. 6. Education of Children; in a pluralistic marriage there is almost always a parent with the knowledge needed to help a child with a homework assignment. Also education can be started much earlier and possibly home schooling would be available as an alternative. Some of the disadvantages to this form of marriage are as follows.

1. Illegality; unlike with same sex marriage, which is simply not recognized by the law. Pluralistic marriage is in fact recognized by the law, recognized as being illegal. Many pluralists live in constant fear of being found out and having their children forcibly taken from them, being accused of the most heinous crimes, and possibly thrown in jail for living their life in the way they choose. This causes them to frequently live in enclosed communities out in the middle of nowhere where they are less likely to be spotted by unfriendly eyes. However this frequently leads to them being declared religious fanatics, or country hicks who know no better, creating yet more fear and distrust among the general population. 2. Cult of Personality; frequently in pluralistic marriages one person in the marriage has a very powerful and dynamic personality which either creates or takes control of the marriage creating a cult of personality. This frequently ends badly as no individual can usually withstand that level of adulation for long without it going to their head. Occasionally a pluralistic marriage will actually fall apart at this persons departure or death as everyone loses focus. This puts a great deal of strain on the children as they lose not just friends, but siblings and parents all following the death or departure of someone who they had felt a nearly god like adulation of. 3. Disputes; with a very large number of individuals in a pluralistic marriage you end up with a very large number of individual disagreements that cannot all be resolved. This frequently results in stress, and eventually leaving of individuals creating truly byzantine custody disputes. 4. Jealousy; though frequently able to suppress jealousy in favor of compersion, this is not always the case. Jealousy between co wives and co husbands is not unusual in pluralistic relationships when they feel neglected due to an unorganized schedule that results in them being alone more often than they wish to be. This can result in serious problems within the marriage and possibly dissolution of the marriage as a whole if it gets out of hand. Thus making jealousy one of the largest problems within the pluralist community.

Polygamy
Polygamy is perhaps the most well known of the pluralistic forms of marriage, gaining recent popularity with the show Big Love from HBO. As well as having gained infamy with the recent events within the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints). The fairly recent (from a historical perspective) decision to ban this form of marriage made by the Christians in this country counts as something of an experiment in my book, which doesnt appear to be working judging by the number of Polygamous groups we keep finding scattered around the country. This form of marriage is when one man is married to multiple women Some of the strengths of this particular form of marriage are as follows.

1. Protection from disease; by definition being in a polygamous relationship (non polygamous pluralistic relationships being classified as Polyamory) the likelihood of catching one of the many virulent sexually transmitted diseases is reduced to almost non existence, however as the number of women possibly being introduced into the relationship is not a fixed number, this form of marriage is somewhat more at risk than monogamy. 2. Certainty of progeny; this is not necessarily certainty of producing progeny, but certainty of knowledge as to the biological parentage of every child in the relationship. 3. Acceptance; individually under the classification of pluralistic marriage is polygamy. This particular form of marriage while still completely illegal is most accepted of all forms of pluralistic marriage. Some of the disadvantages to this form of marriage are. 1. Bad publicity; though this form of relationship has no firm ties to any particular religion, having been common through many cultures and religion in mankinds early history. This form of marriage is frequently seen as a sign of cultish behavior. Also this form of marriage is generally seen by the public as being misogynistic with one man ruling over a harem of women. This is frequently not the case however enough cases where this was the case has come to light to poison the waters for the rest. 2. Lack of sexual diversity; these families are frequently quite large but have just one adult male role model for the children. This can cause feminizing of the male children growing up in the household as they take role models where they can find them.

Polyandry
This form of marriage is perhaps the least known in modern times though it has recently made a bit of resurgence in the United States. Polyandry is defined as the practice of a woman taking multiple husbands. Historically this has been a very controversial form of marriage with punishments for the woman as harsh as death by stoning with the crime written upon the stones. Thankfully in the United States our legal code is somewhat less harsh and unforgiving than that. Some of the strengths of this particular form of marriage are as follows. 1. Protection from disease; by definition being in a polyandrous relationship (non polyandrous pluralistic relationships being classified as Polyamory) the likelihood of catching one of the many virulent sexually transmitted diseases is reduced to almost non existence, however as the number of men possibly being introduced into the relationship is not a fixed number, this form of marriage is somewhat more at risk than monogamy.

Some of the disadvantages to this form of marriage are as follows. 1. Lack of certainty of progeny; with this form of marriage the likelihood of not knowing who the father of an individual child is very high. This can create issues within a polyandrous household that could lead to eventual breaking of the marriage with possible legal consequences. 2. Low birth rate for number of parents; with only one woman involved in the relationship the number of children per parent is extremely reduced in this form of marriage.

Polyfidelity
This is perhaps the single most unusual form of marriage on this particular list. Kerista Village commune out of San Francisco is credited as being the first of this form of marriage. Founded in 1971 and ending in 1991 this was one of the greatest experiments in Polyfidelus lifestyle ever tried. However on much smaller scales this form of marriage is still around today. Polyfidelity is defined as a closed marriage with multiple partners of both sexes. Due to the definition this must be a minimum of four people with at least two male and two female partners who can be either heterosexual or bisexual or in some cases with an extremely large group Lesbian or Gay. The reason for the size requirement is simple, smaller groups would be classified as one of the preceding forms of marriage and these marriages exist regardless of the intent of the people involved. So if one man and two women, polygamy, one woman and two men, polyandry, two of any mix and you get either a traditional marriage or a same sex marriage. Some of the strengths of this particular form of marriage are as follows. 1. Protection from disease; by definition being in a closed relationship (non closed pluralistic relationships being classified as Polyamory) the likelihood of catching one of the many virulent sexually transmitted diseases is reduced to almost non existence, however as the number of people possibly being introduced into the relationship is not a fixed number, this form of marriage is somewhat more at risk than monogamy. 2. Extreme sexual diversity; with the number of parents involved in this form of relationship children end up with a wide variety of role models to choose from of both sexes. 3. Very strong division of talent; though many disagree, men and women are different in more ways than simple sexuality. This variety of marriage is the only one that allows for the multiplicity of persons of the same gender necessary to allow a family to contain people whose inclinations are towards nearly every aspect that the family may need. This frequently results in lower expenses as

jobs that would usually require outside assistance become able to be carried out by the family alone. 4. Same Gender companionship; everyone wants friends of the same gender who they can trust and platonically love. This is much more common in this form of marriage where you are actually married to friends. Some of the disadvantages to this form of marriage are as follows. 1. Complete lack of certainty of progeny; with this form of marriage the likelihood of not knowing who the father of an individual child is very high. This can create issues within a Polyfidelus household that could lead to eventual breaking of the marriage with possible legal consequences. 2. Taxes; though generally the children are just applied towards the members of the household whose incomes are highest as dependants, this is not always the case. The sheer complexity of the individuals tax burden in a marriage of this sort can be extreme. 3. Difficulty in finding spouses; though this may seem to be the perfect form of marriage to most who have read this article, finding four or more individuals whose personalities and personal habits match close enough to make one of these marriages work is difficult at the best of times. 4. Uncontrolled growth; there is a tendency towards uncontrolled growth in this form of marriage as individuals see how wonderful their life is and feel the desire to spread their joy around. This uncontrolled expansion can eventually lead to dissatisfaction by many of the core members who will leave and shatter the internal framework of a marriage causing a slow but inevitable slide towards the end of a marriage. Frequently leaving custody battles that can end up as a maze of legal entanglements that can last for years. This is further exacerbated by the recent discovery by geneticists of a new form of genotype human referred to as Chimera after the mythological beast of legend, which is a human who has genes from multiple adults either from two sperm entering a single ovum or two fertilized ovum joining together in Utero.