August 19th is the official date of Polygamy Day ®, a U.S. registered trademark of the non-profit Polygamy Day, Inc. The first Polygamy Day ® was celebrated on August 19, 2001. Every year thereafter, supporters of polygamy rights for consenting-adults have been able to celebrate this annual date, whether from secular, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Mormon or any other background. As the first celebration occurred in "Year 1" of the new millennium, it was called, "Polygamy Day 1." Each subsequent Polygamy Day ® from then on was labeled in the same numerical way, right on up to the current "Polygamy Day 9" on August 19, 2009. 
 
Over the year preceding "Polygamy Day 9," a number of hope-inspiring situations gave pro-polygamists reasons to celebrate. 
 
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama was elected as the very first African American U.S. President. With political parties and differences aside, the fact that an African American man had actually been elected president gave hope to consenting-adult polygamous Americans of all political backgrounds. As an op-ed at Pro-Polygamy.com noted, "While this pinnacle of achievement proves that African Americans' freedom from oppression and tyranny has been ultimately obtained, pro-polygamists also celebrate it with hope for the same future freedom of polygamous Americans... Now that African Americans have successfully traveled that amazing road from oppression to president, then consenting-adult polygamous Americans can do it too." 
 
Three weeks later, National Polygamy Advocate Mark Henkel's arguments had observably broken through to the Intelligentsia. On November, 28, 2008, renowned libertarian intellectual, Patri Friedman, had specifically written more than once about Henkel's arguments for limited government and laissez faire marital economics. Patri Friedman is the son of academic economist and contributing editor to LIBERTY magazine, David Friedman, and he is the grandson of Nobel Prize winning, free market economist, Milton Friedman. REASON magazine reported in July 2009 how Patri is continuing the Friedman intellectual heritage. Patri Friedman has been published by the CATO Institute and has even received a $500,000 donation from Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, for Friedman’s "Seasteading Institute," a unique experiment for securing libertarian freedom. With such an elite background and set of credentials, Patri Friedman discovered and totally comprehended Mark Henkel's media-reported arguments that the marital socialism of one-man/one-woman incentivizes lazy males not to improve their husband-qualities in the marriage market, thereby depriving many women of decidedly good husbands. Praising what he called Henkel's "great point," Friedman exclaimed to his readers, "What a great argument! Monogamy as marriage marxism, polygamy as competition. Doesn't mean you have to seek multiple partners for yourself - but I buy the case that it's a more libertarian institution." Exactly! Patri Friedman’s "getting it" so exactly is proof that Henkel's argumentation is truly breaking through to the elite intellectual circles. 
 
Not only that, but Henkel's name had even become a source of competition for the media this past year, as well. On June 9, 2009, WordNetDaily.com reported how they were trying to ask President Barack Obama what he specifically thought about the National Polygamy Advocate, Mark Henkel - by name. While the White House denied them the opportunity to ask the question, it was clear that the anti-liberal news source was competing to "scoop" the story before anyone else. When the time is right, their competitive motivation reveals that they can be expected to try again. 
 
In May and June, 2009, the State legislatures of Maine and New Hampshire both respectively passed a new law for same sex marriage. For years, pro-polygamists had been forewarning marriage controllers that relying on anti-republican "democracy" – i.e., majoritarian collectivism – to liberally re-define marriage as one-man/one-woman would backfire one day, as later pro-homosexual majorities could "democratically" re-define marriage for same sex marriage the same way. As Maine and New Hampshire became the first two states to legislatively codify same sex marriage without court compulsion, those two States proved that the forewarning was correct. As the new laws further expand government and marriage re-definitions, such losses for supposed-to-be conservatives actually pave the way for those current marriage controllers - as they keep losing more and more of the political battles - to eventually return to their true conservatism and thereby embrace the polygamy rights win-win solution of limited government instead. 
 
An entirely separate, yet unintended, consequence of the passage of Maine's new same sex marriage law was the unexpected creation of a powerfully effective video for use as an internet tool for polygamy rights. The new video was quite a serendipity indeed! During the public debate prior to the passage of that new law in Maine, the National Polygamy Advocate, Mark Henkel - being a Maine resident himself - attended the committee's official Public Hearing on April 22, 2009. After hours of testimonies from the two sides (YES vs. NO), Mark Henkel gave his own testimony as NEITHER FOR NOR AGAINST - outing the obvious hypocrisy of both sides. Exposing how the YES side was not ending discrimination as claimed, and how the NO side was equally re-defining marriage with the unbiblical one-man/one-woman invention, Henkel proposed the polygamy rights win-win solution for ending the marriage debate. Excited for a workable proposal whereby both sides could "get" a win, many people went up to him afterward, saying that they really could support that win-win solution. Even so, the new law still passed. Consequently, however, an unknown attendee captured Mark Henkel's speech on video and posted it to YouTube. Pro-polygamists who have seen the video rejoiced, being glad to have such a truly effective internet tool for promoting polygamy rights. 
 
With these situations bringing polygamists' freedom closer to actuality, consenting-adult pro-polygamists throughout America undoubtedly have great reason to rejoice with legitimate hope while celebrating this August 19, 2009 - "Polygamy Day 9." 


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Bibliographic URLs:

Polygamy Day, Inc. 
http://www.PolygamyDay.com 
 
 
 
Obama's Historic Election Gives Hope to Polygamous Americans 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0063 
 
 
 
Patri Friedman 
http://www.patrifriedman.com/ 
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/06/patri-friedman/beyond-folk-activism/ 
 
 
 
David Friedman, contributing editor at LIBERTY magazine 
http://www.libertyunbound.com/staff/ 
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/ 
 
 
 
Milton Friedman 
http://www.cato.org/special/friedman/index.html 
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1976/friedman-autobio.html 
 
 
 
REASON reports of Milton, David, and Patri Friedman 
http://www.reason.com/news/show/133865.html 
 
 
 
CATO Institute 
http://www.cato.org/ 
http://www.cato-unbound.org/archives/april-2009/ 
 
 
 
Peter Thiel 
http://www.cato-unbound.org/contributors/peter-thiel/ 
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-education-of-a-libertarian/ 
http://www.seasteading.org/donations 
 
 
 
Patri Friedman: Polygamy is the next civil rights movement? 
http://patrissimo.livejournal.com/945425.html 
 
 
 
Patri Friedman: Polygamy for libertarians: monogamy = marriage marxism? 
http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/11/28/polygamy-libertarians-monogamy-marriage-marxism#comments 
 
 
 
WND AT THE WHITE HOUSE: Door slammed on marriage equality question 
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100689 
 
 
 
Maine’s "Same Sex Marriage" Law "Discriminates" Against Polygamy 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0067 
 
 
 
NH’s "Same Sex Marriage" Law "Discriminates" Against Polygamy 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0068 
 
 
 
Conservative Elite's Majoritarian Collectivism got Democrats Elected 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0048 
 
 
 
The Polygamy Rights WIN-WIN Solution 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0057 
http://www.pro-polygamy.com/articles.php?news=0042 
 
 
 
Mark Henkel testifies at Maine same sex marriage hearing, Apr. 22, 2009 
http://www.truthbearer.org/media/portland-phoenix/2009-04-30-maine-public-hearing-same-sex-marriage/ 
http://thephoenix.com/Portland/News/81725-Play-by-play/?page=2 
http://mainecampus.com/2009/04/23/video-state-debates-gay-marriage/ 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkYETe3yzg 
 



 
[Reviewed for publication - Pro-Polygamy.com Review Board.]