I actually don't have any interest in or experience with poly relationships - I was merely asking as a rhetorical question. But everything you said makes sense

I actually don't have any interest in or experience with poly relationships - I was merely asking as a rhetorical question. But everything you said makes sense - being able to designate a single person to make those kinds of important decisions is extremely useful. It would be very good if those rights/responsibilities could be unbundled from marriage. Where it gets more complicated is in things like the tax code - it seems advantageous to society to offer tax breaks to married couples, with the idea being that this will help them have more resources for raising children. Of course this is predicated upon the notion that a husband-wife team is the best way to raise children (which I happen to believe). If gay marriage is strictly equal to straight marriage, those sorts of policies would seem to disproportionately favor gay couples (who tend not to have children) over straight ones (who generally do).