Transcript of Love Triangle

Marriage no longer between two people

Fox News Channel, Fox and Friends, May 12, 2009

GRETCHEN: Now for a very interesting debate.  While gay activists continue to fight for same sex marriage rights, a new group demanding legal recognition, they call themselves polyamorists, and they want the right to marry into a triad, otherwise known as a threesome. Is this crossing the line, and how far will we take this?

Jenny Block is happily married to her husband and her girlfriend doesn’t mind at all. She’s the author of “Open” Love, Sex, and Life in the Open Marriage.  Also with us Glen Stanton, director of Global Family Formation Studies and Focus on the Family.  Good morning to both of you.

BLOCK: Good morning.

STANTON: Good morning.

GRETCHEN: Alright Jenny, so a lot of people are trying to wrap their heads around this concept. That the triad concept I guess in your mind and explanation is this the new marriage or is it not?

BLOCK: Well, I think it’s one way to do marriage.  I mean, I think this conversation is really about honesty, and about choice. Marriage as we know it now doesn’t have the best success rate as you know so this is just another way of doing this.  There are all different kinds of families and I think that’s a good thing.

GRETCHEN: Alright, so help me understand how this works.  You’re married to your husband, you have a girlfriend on the side, and you all want to legally be recognized together as a triad?

BLOCK: Well to be honest in my situation, I can only speak to mine, I’m very happy with being married to my husband and having a girlfriend as well, but a lot of people want to have the legal protection of having all three people married, and in my mind marriage is a civil institution and so if people want that choice I feel like they should be allowed that.

GRETCHEN: Glen, I know you disagree with this—

STANTON: Yeah.

GRETCHEN: —Speak from the side of traditional values with regards to marriage and where you think this may be heading as far as a “slippery slope.”

STANTON: Well it is a slippery slope. And the idea is that if you think about the argument that these people make for the radical kinds of marriages that they want, they’re exactly the same kinds of arguments, Justice, Equality, things like that, the same sex marriage people have made. And we have said for a long time that same sex marriage would open a Pandora’s box that would lead us to who knows where and it’s not just about triads, it’s about four, five, six people, I mean go on the websites and look at some of these organizations, and you see pictures of five people, six people so it’s not — where does this stop?  And its an amazing things. And the point is that monogamy  is an very important social value.  We have to understand that cultures that fail to recognize and support the idea of monogamy end up to be cultures where women are things merely to be collected and used and thrown away at the end. Not seen as full citizens.  Now that’s why monogamy is an important idea and these people don’t like it.

GRETCHEN: And I wish that I had another three hours to discuss this because it needs it. But, I’ll give Jenny the final word.

BLOCK: Well again I just don’t see any slippery slope. The fact that I could love more than one person does not mean that my neighbor is going to want to marry his dog.  I mean, in the end, this is about love and choice and this isn’t going anywhere but equality for everyone and as far as I’m concerned equality is a wonderful thing.

GRETCHEN: Alright, no doubt as I said earlier, people have a variety of opinions on this issue, and it’s something we will continue to revisit.  Jenny Block and Glen Stanton, thank you for your thoughts this morning.

STANTON: Thank you.

BLOCK: Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.