The Massachusetts House of Representatives has voted UNANIMOUSLY to end child marriage! The Senate still needs to approve the bill before it will head to the governor’s desk.
As you probably know, we have been working with Rep. Kay Khan and Sen. Harriette Chandler, other legislative champions and the Massachusetts Coalition to End Child Marriage for SIX YEARS to pass simple, commonsense legislation to eliminate marriage before age 18. When the bill again stalled in committee this year, we all worked with Minority Leader Rep. Bradley Jones to introduce the legislation as a budget amendment — and that worked. !!
Now it’s up to the senate. If you live in Massachusetts, please email your senator HERE to urge them to make Massachusetts the seventh state to eliminate a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives. #18NoExceptions
You’ve probably heard that Tennessee legislators recently introduced a bonkers bill aimed at undermining same-sex marriage.
And you’ve probably heard that original version of the bill also – by mistake – would have eliminated the state’s minimum age for marriage. Oops.
That itty bitty mistake has been corrected, even while the bonkers bill remains pending. But we know you care about child marriage as much as we do, so here are some facts about the wackadoo Tennessee bill and some of the wild misconceptions about it.
INTENDED AS ANTI-GAY, NOT ANTI-CHILD
HB233/SB562, introduced by Rep. Tom Leatherwood and Sen. Janice Bowling, was intended to create an “alternative pathway” to marriage for heterosexual couples, to undermine the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage.
But in their homophobic zeal, the lawmakers at first forgot to specify a minimum age for this “alternative pathway.” This would have allowed minors of any age, as young as zero, to be entered into marriage.
Again, this was an oversight and not the beginning of a wider, partisan effort to expand child marriage.
NOTHING SHOCKING ABOUT MARRIAGE AGE OF ZERO (UNFORTUNATELY)
What got lost in the resulting national outrage – DID YOU HEAR THAT TENNESSEE WANTS TO ELIMINATE ANY MINIMUM AGE FOR MARRIAGE??!! – is that nine other U.S. states do not specify a minimum age for marriage (see our map of minimum marriage age by state). Until just a few years ago, most states did not specify a minimum age for marriage; indeed, Tennessee did not specify a minimum age for marriage – 17 – until 2018.
In recent years, many states including Tennessee have passed legislation to set an effective marriage age of 16 or 17, in the mistaken belief that this is a huge improvement over their previous effective marriage age of zero (see our map of child marriage legislation by state). We at Unchained are quick to point out that an effective marriage below 18 is dangerous and unacceptable, and 16 or 17 is not actually a huge improvement over zero. Consider:
In other words, Tennessee’s mistakenly introducing a bill to move the effective marriage age from 17 back to zero was no more horrifying than Tennessee’s currently allowing 17-year-olds to be subjected to and trapped in a human rights abuse.
And we are equally horrified about the 43 other U.S. states, in addition to Tennessee, that still allow minors to be entered into marriage before age 18.
THE BIGGER PROBLEM
After a massive public outcry, the Tennessee bill sponsors amended their bill to specify that both parties must be 18 to marry under the “alternative pathway.” The bill is no longer accidentally anti-child, though it remains deliberately anti-gay.
And the public outcry should be focused on this fact: Child marriage is still legal in 44 U.S. states. The Tennessee bonkers bill proved the power of public outrage – so please join us in focusing that outrage on insisting legislators in Tennessee and EVERY U.S. STATE set a marriage age of #18NoExceptions.
Nearly 300 people joined us today for our virtual parallel event to the 66th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to watch the gorgeous film Woman and discuss the film’s central topic: How far have women come, and how far do they still have to go?
If you didn’t get to join us, Woman is available to rent or buy through Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.
We’re celebrating Women’s History Month with an exclusive screening of Woman, a sweeping film exploring women’s place in the world today.
We look forward to seeing you at our virtual parallel event to the 66th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women this Friday, March 18, at 12pm ET/9am PT. We will conclude with a discussion of the film’s central topic: How far have women come, and how far do they still have to go?
If you haven’t yet, register now, as we only have a few spots left.
As we continue to grow rapidly — serving more survivors of forced marriage and pushing more states to eliminate child marriage — we need our first-ever Development Manager to spearhead our fundraising efforts.
Our ideal candidate has three or more years of development experience, is deeply familiar with donor management software and cares deeply about our mission of ending forced and child marriage in the U.S.
One of the horrors of child marriage — the ease with which parents can marry off their teen for selfish reasons and leave the teen trapped in a legal nightmare — has made its way to the Idaho Supreme Court.
Idaho Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments today in the case of a Boise mother seeking full custody of her daughter and the annulment of her daughter’s marriage. The woman’s ex-husband married off their then-16-year-old daughter to a stranger in a sham marriage so the daughter would be emancipated and he could bypass the courts regarding custody and child support.
This case highlights just one of the horrific dangers of the child marriage loopholes that remain in 44 U.S. states. Several state and national media outlets covered the case, including The Daily Beast, The Associated Press and the Idaho Post Register.
Learn more about child marriage in the U.S. and our work to end it.
If you haven’t done so already, register for our virtual screening of Woman and post-film discussion of the plight of women today, including forced and child marriage.
Did you notice the gorgeous music playing as Kaori Sakamoto of Japan skated her way to an Olympic bronze medal last week?
It was the soundtrack of “Woman,” the gorgeous film we will screen March 18 as a parallel event to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The film features interviews with hundreds of women around the world, including (briefly) our Fraidy Reiss.
We have received an overwhelming response to our invitations to this exclusive film screening, and we are quickly approaching capacity. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to REGISTER NOW, before it is too late.
First come, first served!
Did you register yet for our virtual parallel event to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women on March 18 at 12:00 p.m. ET?
Already more than 200 people have signed up to join us as we watch the gorgeous film Woman followed by a discussion with the film’s director and two forced/child marriage survivors interviewed for the film, including our Fraidy Reiss.
Don’t miss out!
As the United Nations launches the virtual 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women – the world’s largest annual gathering on women’s rights – we at Unchained At Last are launching a virtual parallel event.
We’ll watch “Woman,” a gorgeous film that examines the lives and experiences of hundreds of women around the world. And we’ll discuss with the filmmaker and two of the women interviewed for the film — including our Fraidy Reiss — the central question “Woman” raises: How far have women come, and how far do they still have to go?
Speakers:
• Anastasia Mikova, Writer/Journalist/Film Director (“Woman” Co-Director)
• Houry Geudelekian, Chair of NGO CSW/NY (child marriage survivor and “Woman” interviewee)
• Fraidy Reiss, Founder/Executive Director of Unchained At Last (forced marriage survivor and “Woman” interviewee)
Sponsors:
• Unchained At Last
• NGO CSW/NY
18 March 2022
12:00 p.m. EDT – 2:00 p.m. EDT | 9:00 a.m. PDT – 11:00 a.m. PDT | 4:00 p.m. GMT – 6:00 p.m. GMT
ABOUT “WOMAN”
From filmmakers Anastasia Mikova and Yann Arthus-Bertrand, “Woman” is based on interviews with some 2,000 women in 50 countries. In a world where women are forced to marry, deprived of an education, forbidden from going outside on their own and subjected to myriad other abuses, the film is a message of love and hope.
ABOUT CSW
Each year the United Nations hosts the Commission on the Status of Women, the world’s largest annual gathering on women’s rights, in New York City. Representatives of member states, UN entities and approved non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world are invited to attend.
The 66th session of CSW will take place virtually, due to the covid pandemic. It will last from 14 to 25 March 2022, with a priority theme of achieving gender equality in the context of climate change and a review theme of women’s economic empowerment.
ABOUT UNCHAINED AT LAST
Unchained is a survivor-led NGO dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the United States through direct services and advocacy. Unchained provides crucial legal and social services, always for free, to help individuals in the U.S. escape arranged/forced marriages. Unchained also pushes for social, policy and legal change, including by leading a growing national movement to eliminate child marriage in every U.S. state.
Unchained, founded in 2011, has been an Organization in Special Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2017.
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