A Texas Polygamy Case
Thank You Ned Holstein for this article and your work on behalf of Fathers & Families. God Bless us all to do all we can for our children. April 22, 2008.

Recent news reports from Texas about the Yearning for Zion Ranch polygamist group highlight the abuse of young teenage girls who are compelled to marry men twice or three times their age. Yet very little attention has been paid to an equally important issue--the abuse and neglect of the group’s boys.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) removed all children under age 18 (416 children) from the “Ranch” based on one report of alleged abuse. Of these 416, only 27 are teenage boys. Demographics indicate there should have been about 65 teenage boys. Thus there are about 38 missing teenage boys, most of them likely expelled by the male leaders of the group prior to the DFPS raids.

Other communities of this sect have expelled boys as young as 13 from the “Ranch”, forcing them to fend for themselves without education, friends, or adult guidance. The order is usually given by the spiritual leader of the group, and the parents of the boys are too fearful of excommunication to object.

According to one exiled boy, now in his twenties, 70 percent of the boys in his school class were expelled. In a polygamist society in which some men have many wives, simple math tells us that many men will have no wives at all. One way to deal with this inevitable imbalance is to expel the extra men, even if they are still boys who need two parents in their lives at this young and tender age, not just a visiting dad.

Chris Van Duesen an official of the DFPS in Texas apparently has no plans to locate and assist these lost boys. According to Van Duesen, the lost boys problem does not exist in Texas. He offers no explanation for the preponderance of girls in state custody.

This is an unacceptable oversight on the part of public officials whose job is to ensure the safety and welfare of children, boys and girls. I call upon Texas authorities to find and address the needs of these boys. DFPS should search for the boys, locate them, and provide them with shelter and services.