IT’S HAPPENING! Massachusetts legislators just voted to end child marriage — as we and our allies, led by Rep. Kay Khan and Sen. Harriette Chandler, have been pushing them to do for SIX YEARS. !!
The ban on marriage before age 18 was included in this year’s state budget, which now heads to Gov. Charlie Baker for his signature.
Currently minors of any age may be entered into marriage in Massachusetts by a parent and a judge, without any input required from the minor. And once married, the minor is trapped: They may not enter a domestic violence shelter or even file independently for divorce.
If you live in Massachusetts, please contact Gov. Baker here and urge him to make Massachusetts the seventh U.S. state to end child marriage. And then let’s move on to the eighth state.
You want an exciting job that allows you to make the world a better place. And we just opened two new career opportunities that fit that description:
Apply now, before someone else grabs your dream job!
It’s the biggest day of their life. And the scariest. And the loneliest.
It’s the day a survivor flees a forced marriage.
Introducing the Un-Wedding Gift Registry, where you have the opportunity to help a specific survivor with a specific, urgent need. Your gift allows them to escape and rebuild their life — and makes their traumatic experience a little less terrifying and lonely.
We post an Un-Wedding Gift Registry every once in a while, each time for only a brief time — and the inaugural Un-Wedding Gift Registry is now live. Please give a gift today!
As our team at Unchained At Last continues to grow, please allow us to introduce one of our newest and handsomest team members: Fairfax!
Fairfax is a facility dog, which means he is an expertly trained assistance dog who works with a professional to help clients achieve therapeutic and practical goals by performing specific, skilled tasks. Fairfax provides support to Unchained clients and promotes engagement during meetings and therapy sessions. He reduces the trauma-related symptoms that survivors experience as they escape forced marriages, navigate new and often stressful systems and transition into their new lives.
Fairfax was trained by Canine Companions, the leading assistance dog nonprofit in the United States, and he comes to us with his handler, Sam, our new (and first ever) Senior Director of Client Services. Sam is a licensed clinical social worker who also holds a masters degree in public health — and more than 10 years’ experience serving trauma survivors.
Both Sam and Fairfax are extensively trained in animal-assisted psychotherapy. In this therapeutic modality, a dog is incorporated into the therapy process by a specially trained mental health professional to drive the therapeutic process in a nonjudgmental and safely engaging manner. Sam has been training in and utilizing this modality since 2017.
Fairfax follows more than 30 commands, and he can execute complex tasks to engage and console clients by following command sequences. For example, he can apply deep pressure at a client’s request, play games that encourage communication or offer a box of tissues to provide comfort and reduce tension.
Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so you won’t miss #FairfaxFridays, where we will keep you updated on Fairfax’s important work. And we’ll share lots of photos, obviously.
Unchained At Last’s founder and executive director, Fraidy Reiss, has been chosen as one of 10 social entrepreneurs for this year’s Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York Collective.
The Collective, established in 2019, is an incubator for Jewish women changemakers who address critical societal needs and issues, both existing and emerging, with the innovation and determination to make meaningful systemic change and inspire others.
Reiss, a forced marriage survivor turned activist, was selected for her work to end forced and child marriage in the United States through direct services and advocacy. Through Unchained, Reiss has started a national movement to eliminate child marriage in every U.S. state – and already has helped to achieve historic legislative victories in six U.S. states.
“I am honored to be chosen for The Collective and deeply humbled to be included among such extraordinary women leaders,” Reiss said. “Thank you, JWFNY, for believing not only in my mission to eradicate forced and child marriage but in my ability to achieve that mission.”
Reiss and the nine others were selected from a pool of nearly 350 social entrepreneurs. JWFNY introduced and honored them April 27 at an in-person and live-streamed event inaugurating the foundation’s 25th anniversary.
“As the entire world searches for and adopts new paradigms, JWFNY is privileged to partner with each of these remarkable leaders, elevate them and provide them with opportunities to advance and amplify their work,” said Jamie Allen Black, CEO of JWFNY.
Members of The Collective receive two years of capacity building and general operating support, professional development funding and immersive study of leadership and organizational growth. In addition, they get access to a formal and dynamic network of Jewish women visionaries and philanthropists for idea exchanges, support and collaboration, as well as a prominent platform to raise awareness of their work, issue areas and impact.
“[This] represents what is possible when women leaders with moral courage are recognized, encouraged and supported with strategic philanthropic investment,” said Rachel Weinstein, president of JWFNY.
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.
