Is Polygamy Really Legal in the Netherlands?

Last week, as I was flipping through the channels, I stopped momentarily on the FoxNews channel, just long enough to watch America's most arrogant commentator, Bill O'Reilly, say the following:

Most Ridiculous Item of the Day:
Here's a quiz question. Which Irish-American
news analyst predicted that once gay
marriage took root, it would open the door
for other kinds of marriage? Hmmmmm, I
wonder who that guy was? In the
Netherlands, Victor de Bruijn has married
two women: Bianca and Mirjam. They did not
give their last names and looking at this
picture, maybe that was a wise decision.
Anyway, Holland says the three are free to
marry. And why not? They look very happy
together, although Victor does look a bit
perplexed. Perhaps it is exhaustion. Victor
says the three are thrilled, but he will not
allow a fourth person into the marriage,
because that might be ridiculous. — We are
not making this up! Told you...

Only one small problem. They are "making this up." This Dutch trio did not get married, and Holland absolutely does NOT say that "the three are free to marry." O'Reilly almost surely got his information (and the picture he used on the show) from this article which has recently made the rounds of right-wing websites and blogs. It turns out, however, that the article is almost entirely inaccurate. Ampersand at 'Alas, A Blog' debunked the article almost a week ago. Evan Wolfson did the same today (hat tip Andrew Sullivan). As it turns out, the Netherlands does not allow three-way marriages or even three-way registered partnerships. What Victor de Bruijn and his friends Bianca and Mirjam did was sign something called a "samenlevingscontract," which is loosely translated as a "cohabitation contract." These are nothing more than private contracts that anyone is free to enter into with anyone else. There is nothing unique about the arrangement. It is nothing even remotely akin to state-recognized "marriage." People have always been free to say that they are married. Remember back in the early 90s when Rosanne and Tom Arnold "married" their personal assistant? Was that part of the slippery slope too, Bill? Did gay marriage cause that? I suppose this sort of thing is to be expected in the "No Spin Zone."

UPDATE: The online journal that posted the original story now offers a rebuttal (of sorts) which specifically references this post. The author now admits that Victor de Bruijn and company did not get married, but merely signed "cohabitation contracts." These private contracts are (incorrectly) compared to Vermont-style civil unions. For an explanation of why that is NOT the case, follow the links above. The most annoying part of the new article, however, is its suggestion that I claimed that the entire story was made up. As you know if you've read this far, that is clearly not what I wrote. I don't doubt that Victor is a real person or that he and his two lady friends had a ceremony, exchanged rings, and are now on their honeymoon. My point was that their "marriage" was not officially sanctioned by the Netherlands, and therefore the story was incredibly misleading. In any free society, people can have a ceremony and thereafter act as if they are married. De facto polygamy is common, for example, in certain parts of Utah. But the State of Utah, just like Holland, does not officially sanction such marriages. So Victor's "wedding" is simply not newsworthy, and the these stories describing it are nothing more than crude propoganda.