http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiSuyuOOBR8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_and_Brittany_Hensel
Okay, folks - I'm going to PROVE to you why cohabitational bigamy statutes (especially in Utah) are ABSURD! I won't go into the stupidity of prohibitions against granting marriage licenses to same-gender couples when one of them is a hermaphrodite (clerk has to examine the applicant's genitalia to determine eligibility).
A set of twins - Abigail and Brittany Hensel was born in Minnesota in 1990. The girls are 18 or 19 now, and are beginning to think about marriage and children. As you can see in the photo and videos, they are two people - joined/merged from the neck down. There are two brains (no duhh !!!) two hearts, two arms and two legs. Abby controls one half of the body, Brittany controls the other half. When they walk somewhere, each has to take a turn moving a leg. They learned at an early age that this would be their best shot at successful ambulation. I remember a reporter once asking their parents if the girls would marry one guy or two. This question caught the parents entirely off guard, so in the same moment, each parent gave a different answer.
Quiz question -
1. Is it -
a) One person with two heads, or
b) Two persons with one body?
(answer not given below)
When they drive they share the steering and pedal-pushing tasks. In school, they have different competencies and interests while they, of course, sit at the same desk. There is only one vagina. If they marry one guy will it be polygyny? If they marry two guys, I guess it would be polyandry, right??
I wish like crazy they would move to Utah so we could all see how they run afoul of Utah's ridiculous bigamy statute when they go to the County Clerk's office. Maybe they would not be prosecuted, simply because they do not have a heritage of Mormon beliefs. Maybe they would not be prosecuted because of the Lawrence v. Texas decision (June 26, 2003) which asserts that no State can enact or enforce any laws criminalizing the private, intimate, sexual conduct of consenting adults. Maybe they would not be prosecuted because, finally, the tide of public (and ecclesiastical) opinion has swung in the direction of compassion and sanity when dealing with a minority burdened by an involuntary disability.
Go figure.
Renn
