Polygamists won concessions and their opponents claimed victory Friday with approval of a measure aimed at reducing the number of teen-age brides forced into plural marriage.
The debate during a legislative committee hearing attracted about 40 polygamists, many of whom recounted painful memories of more than half a century of forced secrecy.
That secrecy has fostered a culture prone to abuse and coercion of young girls, said Sen. Ron Allen, D-Stansbury Park. His Senate Bill 146 would make it a felony for parents or pastors to condone or solemnize outlawed marriages of minors. After a few revisions, a House judiciary committee unanimously passed the measure to the House floor.
Those revisions include softening a provision targeting religious leaders who solemnize outlawed marriages of consenting adults. That crime now would be a misdemeanor.
Also removed was language that would make it a felony for parents to promote or encourage polygamy, a provision polygamists feared would revive the same sort of political climate that led to the 1950s-era raids in Utah and Arizona, when hundreds of men were imprisoned for "unlawful cohabitation" with their plural wives.
"I was 4 years old during the '54 raid and I remember being smuggled so I wouldn't be torn from my family," plural wife Linda Kelsch said after Friday's hearing. "That's why it's so hard for us to reach out. From the time we were children, we were told by outsiders that we were wrong."
Kelsch's father, Albert Barlow, was imprisoned twice, once at the Sugar House Penitentiary and once at the Utah State Prison in Draper.
"It's not fair we have to live in fear," Kelsch said. "You can't tear the heart out of a faith, out of a people. They'll never change the faith. They will never wipe us out."
Many credit Allen for navigating rugged terrain. In the end, opposing sides accepted SB146 as a palatable way to protect young girls.
"We are very pleased with the steps forward that this bill is taking," said Sidney Anderson, a plural wife and director of the Women's Religious Liberty Union, whose members previously fought many of Allen's attempts to police polygamy.
"Our policy of ignoring and shunning polygamy for 100 years has not solved the problem," Allen said. "It's got to start with dialogue."
Followers of Owen Allred's Apostolic United Brethren, based in Bluffdale, made up most of Friday's audience, although a contingent of independent polygamists and a few gawkers crammed a committee room.
Also watching was Ellery Kingston, a member of the polygamous Kingston clan. One of Kingston's cousins was recently convicted of incest with a 16-year-old girl forced to become his 15th wife. The girl's father was convicted for beating the girl when she attempted to flee the incestuous marriage.
The case is a prime example of the behavior Allen hopes to dissuade.
And while pleased that their activism apparently had a positive effect on the political process, many polygamists fear future attempts to eradicate their lifestyle or religion.
Tapestry Against Polygamy attorney Douglas White called SB146 the most significant anti-polygamy measure since the Mormon Church's 1890 Manifesto, which directed members to discontinue plural marriage.
"The Legislature is ready to end polygamy," said White, who helped write SB146. "Even polygamists are realizing it's a relic of the past."