Polygamy summit drawing interest
Polygamists, government bureaucrats and social service workers will converge at the Dixie Center on Thursday for a town hall forum, put on each year by the Utah and Arizona Attorney Generals' Safety Net Committee. This year, organizers expect heightened interest.
"Obviously, because so many of the people are from Colorado City and Hildale, because they went to Eldorado," said Jane Irvine, the community outreach director for the Arizona Attorney General's Office. "I think that's all the more reason that people want to have this town hall, to try and answer questions and continue to have the dialogue."
A few Texas child welfare workers plan to attend, said Paul Murphy, the Safety Net coordinator for the Utah Attorney General's Office.
"We want for them to answer questions, and also ask questions and learn from what we've been doing here," he said.
This is the fifth year the summit has been held. It started when a group of plural wives crashed a 2003 summit on "the polygamy problem," demanding to be heard. That led to the creation of the Safety Net Committee, composed of people from Utah and Arizona's polygamous communities, representatives from government agencies, nonprofit social service groups and others, to reach out to help victims of abuse and neglect in closed societies.
"I think that because we're talking about children, families and abuse issues, emotions will be high — my emotions will be high," said Joyce Steed, a member of the Centennial Park, Ariz., community. "My hope is we're getting the message out there that Utah and Arizona have been working with plural family communities, and they've been having a successful interaction."
Security has also been heightened for the event, which features Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
Public relations
Before the Texas raid, the theme of this year's summit was "media and polygamy." It's something many from polygamous community have had painful, first-hand experience dealing with.
"In the media, our lifestyle and beliefs get painted as abusers and people who commit welfare fraud," said Steed. "I don't think all media portrays it that way. My concern is we really need to separate the lifestyle from the actions of individuals."
Murphy, a former TV news reporter, said it is frustrating for the news media as well.
"I was always frustrated in trying to tell the story of polygamists because they rarely wanted to be involved in telling their story," he said. "There was a tension from the beginning from people asking questions and those who were being asked the questions. Even the most thoughtful reporters, when they would come into Colorado City and Hildale, there were these images of children fleeing from the cameras."
Recent comments
The problem I see with polygamy is that it defies the laws of nature...
Pam | May 8, 2008 at 2:36 p.m.
I am the fifth generation of original mormon polygamists. Ann Mere | May 6, 2008 at 12:15 p.m.
It's upsetting that too many of the media are unwilling to acually...
ALL the facts should be told | May 6, 2008 at 11:21 a.m.
