Nearly 100 polygamists and their supporters packed a Capitol Hill hearing on an anti-polygamy bill Tuesday, a rare public assembly of plural families whose lifestyle was outlawed in Utah 105 years ago.
Wives with babies crouched on the floor. Husbands leaned against walls. And two uniformed state troopers, summoned by a lawmaker, stood in the front and back of the room.
"We are people just like you. We love our children. We pay our taxes. We have a right to live our lives," said Owen Allred, the 87-year-old leader of the nation's second-largest polygamous church, the Apostolic United Brethren.
Allred encouraged Tuesday's strong showing against the bill during a Sunday sermon before his Bluffdale congregation. Roughly half the crowd followed Allred to the Capitol. Others belong to a loose underground of independent polygamists, a network that continues to thrive despite Utah's long effort to abolish polygamy.
"I've never seen this many people come to one of our hearings -- on any subject," said Rep. Glenn Way, R-Spanish Fork, co-chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "Especially this one-sided."
Only four people in the crowd came to testify in favor of Sen. Ron Allen's measure, which targets marriages of young teens in polygamist communities by making it a third-degree felony for parents or pastors to condone or solemnize outlawed marriages.
"We want to help the children who have no voice and no choice," said Vicky Prunty, executive director of Tapestry Against Polyga- my, a group of former polygamous wives whose lawyer, Douglas White, helped Allen, D-Stansbury Park, craft the legislation.
Tapestry has almost single-handedly revived a long-dormant practice in Utah of charging polygamists with bigamy, a trend that snared Juab County polygamist Tom Green, who awaits trial on four counts of bigamy and single counts of child sex abuse and criminal nonsupport.
Tapestry's members do not quibble: They want to end polygamy. But first they intend to rescue hundreds of abused women and children they say are trapped in Utah's male-dominated polygamous communities.
"It's sick and it's sad," said Rowenna Erickson, a Tapestry co-founder. "Somebody has to fight for these children. We could sure use some help at the Legislature."
But by bending Utah's marriage statute so prosecutors can target parents and religious leaders, opponents say, Allen's Senate Bill 146 also threatens consenting adults who enter polygamous relationships and parents who teach plural marriage as religious doctrine.
"We do not support child brides," said Mary Batchelor, co-author of a positive account of plural marriage. Batchelor and Prunty are former sister-wives of the same man.
Overwhelmed by the crowd, the judiciary committee crammed debate into a half-hour slice of pros and cons, highlighted by Allred's speech.
"I applaud Mr. Allen's efforts to pass this bill . . . for the safety and well-being of our children," Allred said. "I have children. A lot of them."
However, Allred said, it is unfair for the state to support children born out of wedlock to single parents when polygamous couples who want to support and legitimize their children are prevented by law.
"When a man wants to marry a woman and take care of that child, you say 'No, we won't help you because you're a polygamous child.' "
Allred said laws against statutory rape and child abuse already cover acts Allen hopes to prevent.
"I only ask the state to enforce the laws they have," he said afterward. "They don't need more."
At the very least, opponents asked Allen to delete two sections of SB146. The first would make it a felony for parents to encourage or promote outlawed marriages, including polygamy and same-sex unions. The second is a passage that makes it a felony for someone to officiate during outlawed marriages of consenting adults.
"We don't swallow [Allen's] stated intent," said plural wife Marianne Watson, one of Batchelor's two co-authors. "We believe it opens the door to the [polygamy] raids of the 1800s and 1900s . . . a witch hunt this state can ill afford."
After the meeting, Rep. Scott Daniels, D-Salt Lake City, said he will propose an amendment lowering the penalty for solemnizing an outlawed marriage from a felony to a misdemeanor.
"This is too harsh," he said.
Rep. Katherine Bryson, R-Orem, suggested removing the words "promote" and "encour- age."
"We're not talking about a crime, we're talking about marriage," she said. "Wouldn't that be difficult to prove, what's inside a person's head?"
With little time to explore each angle or listen to every person, the judiciary committee delayed further discussion and debate until Friday, when a vote is expected that could move the measure to the House floor. SB146 unanimously passed the Senate.
The polygamists and Tapestry Against Polygamy each promised to return.
Prunty wants to prevent "children from being groomed into polygamy."
Batchelor, Prunty's former sister-wife, wants to promote understanding of a lifestyle too often painted with a negative brush, she told lawmakers.
"Our presence here is not a threat, but an invitation to open a dialogue between you and the people of this special minority."