Polygamy Actually is Illegal

The marriage topic can be a fire starter with a lot of people.  The gay marriage advocates look at it as a matter of civil liberties while the other side maintains that is a matter of centuries of tradition.  From my viewpoint I always ask both sides why the government should be involved in the matter in the first place.  This line of thinking led me to ponder polygamy.  I have always known that polygamy is not recognized by the state but I never really thought beyond that to realize that it is illegal.  I had always assumed that you could live with consenting adults and say that you are married much as the case is with many gay and lesbian couples.  However, I was very wrong, not only can you not live with multiple women and declare yourself married to them, the same as any gay couple could do at any moment, you could actually go to prison unlike the gay couple.  From the West's Encyclopedia of American Law:

States base their laws on the Model Penal Code § 230.1, which states that a person is guilty of the third-degree felony of polygamy if he or she "marries or cohabits with more than one spouse at a time in purported exercise of the right of plural marriage." The offense continues until all cohabitation with and claim of marriage to more than one spouse terminate.

It is quite absurd to hear the fight for a "right to marriage" from same sex couples while they can easily declare themselves married, take the same last name, and have a ceremony conducted by a religious institution that recognized that form of marriage while it would be considered unlawful for a polygamist to do any of the aforementioned.  I recognize the fact that the governement is making a moral decision by only defining marriage as x, y, or z whether it be heterosexual, same sex, or polygmaist.  This is why the government should not make that distincition in the first place leaving that decision to individuals and religious entities.