[yeahdude]

What is the difference between specifics and fundamentals? Aren't the legal ramifications the fundamentals? I mean, it is a legal institution that we are talking about, right?

I'm not saying you can't have a loving and intimate relationship between 3 or more people, I'm just saying same-sex marriage is much closer to heterosexual marriage in terms of legal ramifications because it's only 2 people. Lines and triangles are both geometric figures, but that doesn't make them fundamentally the same.

[kstenerud]

Oookay... you've lost me. What exactly is the point of this discussion? Because it's starting to sound like splitting hairs to me.

[yeahdude]

You said the difference is academic. No, it requires significant changes to the legal framework of marriage.

Consider the following programs:

1) A program that allows a PC to talk to a Mac

2) A program that allows a PC to talk to a PC.

3) A program that allows a Mac to talk to a Mac.

4) A program that allows any number of Macs and PCs to talk to each other all at once.

The point is that given 1, it's pretty straightforward to write 2 and 3. 4 is a just a lot harder to get right. I'm not saying it can't be done, but the difference in the patches required to support 2, 3, and 4 is not academic.

Laws are pretty similar to programs, and there's a big jump in complexity going from 2 of something to 3 of something. Anyone that was actually poly would know this from all the honesty, negotiation, and ground rules that are required to make it work.