What Teens of Polygamy are Really Like

May 12, 2008 12:00 AM by Dorothy Allred Solomon |  COMMENTS

Media outlets want stories about teens who have left the FLDS or other polygamous communities. I can imagine what reporters and producers are thinking based on questions they ask me about my own polygamous background: Did they try to make you marry an old man?  How did you escape?  How old were you?  The scenarios drawn by some people who leave polygamy paint a grim view of teen life. 

In fact, teens in polygamous communities receive protection that teens in mainstream communities do not: protection from suicide web sites and heavy metal suggestions about self-mutilation, protection from drug abuse and various enticements to sell out one’s virtue.  Most polygamous communities insist on their teens growing up before marriage.  The median age for marriage in the group where I grew up was twenty-one.  Salacious stories are hard to come by in such a setting.  No thirteen year olds getting pregnant there unless they’re sneaking out the bedroom window to meet their boyfriends.

READ MORE

COMMENTS | PERMALINK

Print Email Share [+]

Kaboodle Pop Sugar Digg Del.icio.us Facebook What is Share?