Many observers are applauding the state of Texas for carrying out an extensive raid on a polygamist sect's compound there this week. In doing so, many of them are also castigating Utah for its milder approach to polygamy over the years.
 
Plural marriage has a deep-rooted history in Utah. For decades, it was accepted by the mainstream Mormon church, which eventually renounced the practice in 1890. However, polygamy persists in the southern Utah town of Hildale, which is tied to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS. And it's still practiced by some in Salt Lake City, as evinced by "Valerie X," a woman who appeared this week on CNN's Larry King Live. She said she strongly supports polygamy, though her children are in the public school system in Salt Lake City.
 
There are also groups in Utah dedicated to helping the "victims" of polygamy, such as The Hope Organization, based in St. George.
 
"We will help anyone who desires to leave the environment of polygamy including underage brides, women wanting to leave, and young men (the "Lost Boys") who are cast away like unwanted pets," the group says on its Web site.
 
In fact, groups such as these are being called in to assist those working with the 416 children now in state custody in Texas, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported Thursday. There are also Utah families, such as Carl and Joni Holm, who are working to help young people seeking to escape the lifestyle--something Carl Holm did when he was 16. The Holms recently welcomed in two young girls and a boy into their home, according to KUTV-2.
 
But while there is much support for those wanting to escape polygamy in Utah, some in this state are simply left wondering why Utah law enforcement hasn't taken as tough a stand as Texas has.
 
"Utah was never so bold," writes Holly Mullen on Salt Lake City Weekly's Web site. "When we had our chance to clean up a similar mess over decades, our blessed state wimped out."
 
Mullen believes the reason could be due to Utah's heritage, or even just another bizarre element of the state's past, causing attention given to the issue to wane.
 
"For many, 'the principle' is a part of their sacred ancestral heritage, which has somehow kept it from serious scrutiny," she writes. "For so many others, polygamy remains just another element of Utah's wacky religious back-story—like inexplicable liquor laws and closing off public access to Main Street. And that means that as time passes, polygamy and the outgrowth of child abuse come to be seen as silly cultural icons worthy of only an eye roll."
 
Flora Jessop, who left the FLDS when she was 16, now helps women and children leave the sect. She too faults Utah, as well as Arizona, for inaction on polygamy, telling The Salt Lake Tribune that she wishes the states long ago had intervened to stop the practice of plural marriage between young girls and older men.
 
"If a child is being hurt, the authorities need to be there for the children," Jessop said. "They deserve the right to be free from abuse, just like their parents."
 
It's possible, even plausible, that the same types of alleged abuses that have occurred in Texas are also occurring in Utah, but Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has taken a softer stance on polygamy here, making it more difficult to find out these details. 
 
"It's been Utah's policy—forged in the past eight years, primarily by Attorney General Mark Shurtleff—to work slowly and practically with FLDS communities and in prosecuting men who groom little girls to be their sex partners and take them as underage wives," Mullen writes.
 
While Utah has gone after high-profile perpetrators such as the sect's prophet, Warren Jeffs--successfully prosecuting him last year for rape as an accomplice for marrying a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old cousin--a Texas-style raid simply hasn't happened here.
 
However, in a startling revelation this week, Shurtleff admitted to ABC-4 that such a raid almost happened in Utah--to a polygamous clan known as the Kingston family, which the Deseret News says is a group with roughly 1,500 members based in the Salt Lake City area.
 
A year and a half ago, Shurtleff said, 80 warrants had been issued by courts in Utah, and he revealed he was "gearing up" to serve them.
 
"We considered going in a similar, SWAT type - I guess for lack of a better word - operation into a church meeting and bar the doors and start collecting evidence," Shurtleff told the TV station.
 
But Shurtleff ultimately decided against that approach.
 
"We elected not to do that to try and work with their attorney," he said. "And, of course, the result of that was all our subjects disappeared, our targets disappeared, and we didn't get the warrants served like we hoped to do."