Months ago, we on the Unchained advocacy team made a promise: When the first U.S. state passed the legislation we’re promoting to end all child marriage, without exceptions, each of us would get a tattoo to commemorate the victory.
Last Wednesday, Delaware became that first state. And we’re keeping our promise. Last Thursday, we scheduled our simultaneous tattoo appointments for May 25, and we paid our tattoo deposits. Gulp.
Our Movement to End Child Marriage in America
We at Unchained At Last launched and now lead a historic movement to end child marriage in America.
When we started the movement in October 2015 with an op-ed article in the New York Times, marriage before 18 was legal in all 50 U.S. states. Since then, we’ve helped to write and/or promote legislation in some two dozen states to end child marriage – but legislators in state after state have rejected or watered down the legislation. Even after our recent victory in Delaware, marriage before 18 remains legal in 49 U.S. states, and 21 states still do not specify any minimum age to marry.
Child marriage often is forced marriage, because children are nearly powerless to say no to an impending marriage, or to get divorced, before they turn 18. Further, child marriage destroys girls’ health, education, economic opportunities and quality of life.
That’s why we write op-ed articles, conduct in-depth research (including the groundbreaking research that showed an estimated quarter-million children were wed in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010), organize Chain-In protests against child marriage, travel the country to meet with legislators and testify at legislative hearings, give regular media interviews, recruit allies, coordinate email and postcard-writing campaigns, present at conferences and other venues, and, on one occasion, promised to get tattoos if we achieved victory.
Led by a forced-marriage survivor, we are the only organization dedicated to helping women and girls in the U.S. to escape forced marriages, and the only organization dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in America.
You Are Part of the Movement
If you’re reading this, you are part of the movement. Thank you. We are especially grateful to:
- The child-marriage survivors who bravely share their stories to effect change;
- The legislators leading their states’ efforts to end child marriage, particularly Delaware Rep. Kim Williams, the first legislator to succeed;
- Everyone who has donated time and money, submitted emails to legislators, joined a Chain-In, liked or shared our social media posts, talked to others about our work and joined our state-by-state coalitions;
- White & Case, the law firm that generously donates hundreds of hours of legal research and other support;
- TrustLaw, which introduced us to White & Case;
- Chelsea Clinton, who shines her powerful spotlight on child marriage in America;
- The allies who make our advocacy work possible through their partnership and support, including Human Rights Watch, AHA Foundation, Child Labor Coalition, Global Citizen, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schrek, Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, Roberts Family Foundation, NoVo Foundation, Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, Jewish Women’s Foundation of Greater Palm Beaches, Lush Charity Pot, and EJF Philanthropies.
We still have a lot of work to do to end child marriage in America. Here are more ways you can help.