Tapestry attacks polygamy manual

An Attorney General's office manual designed to give insight on working with polygamous groups is being rejected by an anti-polygamy group as "endorsing polygamy and promoting its growth."

"After reading its 30 pages, we were stunned and believe this primer is one more attempt to normalize polygamy," Tapestry Against Polygamy executive director Vicki Prunty wrote Monday in a letter to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

"The premise of this manual seems to be based on cultural sensitivity to those who practice polygamy."

The manual has been circulated in draft form recently among groups and individuals working with Shurtleff's office, along with a request for feedback and input, AG spokesman Paul Murphy said. The objective of the book is to provide service providers, like social workers or physicians, with insight into the issues at play when someone from a polygamous community seeks assistance.

"We'd like it to be a resource book. The government has a hard time knowing how to help people who are afraid of them," said Murphy. "Essentially, we put out the information we had collected and let people react. We asked them to offer input on what should be added and what wasn't helpful. It was a rough, rough draft."

Tapestry was among those groups whose opinions were repeatedly solicited as information was gathered, but the group never responded, Murphy said.

Prunty said when she first looked at the manual, she asked the AG's office for a financial contribution to Tapestry because so much work would be required. No contribution was made, she said. After further review, Tapestry members decided the manual would not be helpful to those trying to leave polygamy.

"We realized that it would just be the same thing over and over," said Prunty. "Both sides giving their input and not really being effective."

Tapestry also fears that equipping service providers with too much "cultural sensitivity" to plural communities will allow polygamists to further abuse or defraud state services, Prunty said.

"We didn't feel like we wanted to enable them," she said.