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IN PHOTO: Enoch Foster, a fundamentalist Mormon practicing polygamy, prays before a meal with his first wife Catrina Foster, second from left, and several of his 13 children from two wives in their home blasted from a rock wall at the Rockland Ranch community outside Moab, Utah, November 2, 2012. The "Rock" as it is referred to by the approximately 100 people living there in about 15 families, was founded about 35 years ago on a sandstone formation near Canyonlands National Park. Polygamy was a part of the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was brought to Utah by faithful Mormons in the late 1840s. The mainstream Mormon church abandoned the practice in 1890, but an estimated 37,000 Mormon fundamentalists continue the practice today and believe plural marriage brings exaltation in heaven. Picture taken November 2, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

American values have been shifting with an increasing number supporting liberal values regarding LGBT rights, marriage equality and sex. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Americans who support polygamy and the number has doubled since 2001. This increase in approval has matched with the support for human cloning among the general population.

According to the latest Gallup Poll, Americans are moving to the left wing grounds. Support for marriage equality, stem cell research, divorce, abortion and polygamy has increased. More Americans would rate themselves social liberals and that is a significant increase in the Gallup Poll’s 16-year-old history. The shift in American approval for polygamy has been a dramatic aspect. This has been seized by conservative writers.

Conservative writer Ross Douthat has predicted that polygamy would be legalised in U.S. in 20 to 30 years. He has linked the greater acceptance of LGBT rights to shift in polygamy approvals. In his New York Times column, Douthat asks, “Can a cultural left that believes in proliferating gender identities and Bruce Jenner’s essential womanhood draw the line, long-term, when a lesbian couple wants to include their baby’s biological father in their legal family, or when the child of polygamists stands up in court to say he wants his dad recognised as his mother’s legal spouse?”

Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project, ascribes the popularity of polygamy to “an increasingly libertarian or laissez-faire view that many younger Americans take toward sex, marriage and family life,” reports Daily Beast.

Polygamy is still practiced within Muslim and Mormon religions. But the increase in acceptance does not mean that it has reached the mainstream of the society. According to the Daily Beast, it would be difficult for pro-polygamists to gain a positive public opinion as their supporters are spread over “a scattered field of sexual radicals, conservatives and columnists looking for a counter intuitive argument.” But for many right wing conservatives, the shift of American values has been disturbing.

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