The silence sent a loud message last Thursday, when we held our first-ever Silent Chain-In in Olympia.

More than 20 survivors, allies and legislators joined us to stand silently on the rotunda steps in the state capitol, dressed in bridal gowns and chains. Our message was clear: It is time for Washington legislators to pass HB1455 and end child marriage — a human rights abuse that impacted 5,048 children as young as 13 in Washington between 2000 and 2021, mostly girls wed to adult men, in some cases before the girls were old enough to consent to sex.

Rep. Monica Stonier, the primary sponsor of HB1455 joined us in our silence, as did legislative champions Sen. Derek Stanford – who introduced a companion bill in the senate – and Sen. Manka Dhingra – who is holding a hearing on HB1455 in the senate law and justice committee on Jan. 30. Child marriage survivors Kate Yang and Sara Tasneem and forced marriage survivor Stephanie Warren also joined to share their personal stories. We were joined, as well, by several allies from the Washington Coalition to End Child Marriage, including Michele Hanash of the AHA Foundation and several members of Zonta International, including Katherine Cleland.

Our Silent Chain-In got a lot of attention, including from the Seattle Times (which was also picked up by the Spokesman-Review, the Columbian, the Herald-Palladium and others), NewsRadio 560 KPQ, KPUG, the Northwest News Network, Fox 13 (link not available) and more.

We at Unchained started and now lead a growing national movement to end child marriage in the United States by making the marriage age 18, no exceptions, in all 50 states. One of the many ways we advocate for change is by hosting Chain-Ins like this. Read more here about this form of peaceful protest we invented.

Child marriage is an urgent problem in Washington. Dangerous legal loopholes allow parents to enter a child of ANY AGE into marriage without any input required from the child, and without any real legal recourse for a child who does not want to marry.

Marriage before 18 can too easily be forced, because minors, even a day before their 18th birthday, have limited legal rights that make resisting or escaping an unwanted marriage nearly impossible. Further, marriage before 18 is a human rights abuse that destroys American girls’ health, education and economic opportunities and greatly increases their risk of experiencing violence.

Let’s seize on the momentum. If you live in Washington, contact your senators now and urge them to end child marriage. And wherever you live, here are other ways you can get involved.