The Michigan senate just passed the bill package to end child marriage that we’ve been promoting for seven years. !!! And the house passed the same legislation yesterday. !!!
Each chamber now needs to pass the other’s legislation. If they do, the bill package — championed by Sen. Sarah Anthony and Rep. Kara Hope — then goes to the governor’s desk.
We write this from Sacramento, where we just Chained-In to urge legislators to end child marriage in California. And we’re heading to Connecticut tomorrow to watch the acting governor sign the child marriage bill into law. We won’t rest until we end child marriage in every U.S. state.
WE DID IT!
Dressed in bridal gowns and chains, we and our allies gathered at the Connecticut State Capitol Friday to urge Connecticut senators to pass HB6569, the simple, commonsense bill that would end child marriage in Connecticut – and we promised to come back every day until the end of the legislative session, unless they passed the bill. And it worked!
Following our Chain-In, we sat in the senate chamber, still in gowns and chains, and watched the senate finally vote UNANIMOUSLY to end child marriage. !!!
The house passed the same bill a few weeks ago, to eliminate a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives. Which means the bill we have been promoting since 2017 to make the marriage age 18, no exceptions, now goes to Gov. Ned Lamont.
And Lamont has promised to sign it.
With passage of this bill, championed by Rep. Jillian Gilchrest and bipartisan legislators, Connecticut will become the ninth U.S. state where our relentless advocacy has helped to end child marriage. (We are doing everything we can to make sure Michigan soon becomes the 10th state.)
Speakers at the Chain-In included:
Our Chain-In drew the attention of legislators, passersby and news media, including the Associated Press, NBC Connecticut, Fox News, Connecticut Mirror, The Hartford Courant, CT Insider, WTNH News8, CT News Junkie, The Messenger and more.
Connecticut could end child marriage right now — but the senate is not moving a pending bill that the house already passed, and the governor promised to sign, to end this human rights abuse. And if they don’t act by Wednesday, the bill will die.
This calls for an emergency protest.
We will Chain-In in Hartford on June 2. We will wear bridal gowns and chains to urge Connecticut senators to pass HB6569, the simple, commonsense bill that would eliminate all marriage before age 18, no exceptions.
If the senate doesn’t take action, we may turn this into a perpetual Chain-In: We will Chain-In at the capitol EVERY DAY until the end of the legislative session (June 7), unless the senate passes the bill.
Speakers at the Chain-In will include:
We also will sing and chant against forced and child marriage, including a rendition of The Girls You Have Destroyed, a chilling poem/song we wrote about child marriage in the United States.
Chain-In Hartford
June 2 | 10:30 a.m.
South side of the Connecticut State Capitol
210 Capitol Ave., Hartford, CT
Child Marriage in the United States
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.
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.
Join the movement. Chain-In with us to demand an end to this human rights abuse.
There are not many movements in the U.S. where we can point to one activist and say, “That person was both the spark and the fire,” Chelsea Clinton — our longtime ally — recently told our Fraidy Reiss (see the video below).
But when it comes to the national movement to end the harmful practices of forced and child marriage, the six million girls who live in the eight states where we have helped to end child marriage “truly owe that right and that freedom to you,” Chelsea told Fraidy.
Fraidy replied that no one person can end forced and child marriage in the U.S., not even one person wearing her signature, deep red lipstick.
“It takes a village,” Fraidy said.
Thank you for being an important member of that village, along with us and Chelsea Clinton. Please donate today to help us keep fighting forced and child marriage in the U.S.
Child marriage is an urgent problem in California. Dangerous legal loopholes allow parents to enter a child of ANY AGE into marriage with judicial approval — without any real legal recourse for a child who does not want to marry.
Our research shows that some 23,588 minors were entered into marriage in California between 2000 and 2018 — often with devastating, lifelong consequences for the girls. All of these marriages legalized what would have been considered a sex crime outside of marriage. There’s a reason the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
This calls for a protest.
We will Chain-In in Sacramento on June 22. We will wear bridal gowns and chains to urge legislators to introduce and pass a simple, commonsense bill that would end child marriage in California.
Speakers at the Chain-In will include:
We also will sing and chant against forced and child marriage, including a rendition of The Girls You Have Destroyed, a chilling poem/song we wrote about child marriage in the United States.
Chain-In Sacramento
June 22 | 8:30 a.m.
West Steps of the California State Capitol
1315 10th St., Sacramento, CA
Chain-In Sacramento is possible thanks to a generous grant from the Conboy Foundation.
Child Marriage in the United States
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.
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.
Join the movement. Chain-In with us to demand an end to this human rights abuse.
Dressed in bridal gowns and chains, we and our allies gathered at the Michigan State Capitol Thursday to urge Michigan legislators to pass HB4297-4302/SB209-217 & SB246, the simple, commonsense bill package that would end child marriage in Michigan.
Speakers included:
Our Chain-In drew the attention of passersby and news media, including MLive, WLNS-TV 6, WILX, WWMT News Channel 3, UpNorthLive 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.
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.
One of the strategies we use in our push to end this human rights abuse is the Chain-In. Read more here about this powerful form of peaceful protest, which we have staged in multiple U.S. states.
Yesterday, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted YES on the bill to end child marriage!
The bill still has to pass the Senate and be signed by the governor, but Connecticut is now one step closer to becoming the NINTH U.S. state where our relentless advocacy has helped to end all marriage before 18, without exception. If you live in Connecticut, email your senators now to urge them to pass HB6569, championed by Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, and end this human rights abuse!
Some rare good news for girls in this country: Vermont just became the eighth U.S. state where our relentless advocacy has helped to end child marriage!
Gov. Phil Scott just signed legislation championed by Rep. Carol Ode to make the marriage age in Vermont 18, no exceptions.
Twice before, in 2018 and 2022, the same legislation in Vermont — also sponsored by Rep. Ode — died because the legislature failed to act on it.
We refused to give up. We formed the Vermont Coalition to End Child Marriage with allies across Vermont and beyond who were determined to see Rep. Ode’s legislation pass. We compiled in-depth legal research conducted on a pro bono basis by the law firms White & Case and DLA Piper. We met one-on-one with legislators. We spoke at public events and forums. We testified at legislative hearings and submitted memos of support, and we recruited our allies to do the same. We launched email campaigns to target state legislators.
And it worked!
Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago and Elluminate made our work possible with their generosity. And you made this victory possible, if you took action on our email campaigns, shared our posts on social media or supported us financially.
Previously, parents could enter 16- and 17-year-olds into marriage in Vermont without any input from the teen and without any legal recourse for a teen who did not want to marry.
Marriage before age 18 creates a hellish legal trap: Even the most mature 17-year-old cannot easily leave home to escape an unwanted wedding, enter a domestic violence shelter to seek safety, nor retain an attorney to help them.
Further, marriage before 18 produces such devastating, lifelong repercussions for girls, in almost every aspect of their lives, that the U.S. State Department has called it a human rights abuse.
This human rights abuse happened with alarming frequency. Our study found that some 298 minors were entered into marriage in Vermont between 2000 and 2022. About 80 percent were girls wed to adult men an average of 4.2 years older.
Vermont has now joined Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts in embracing the simple, commonsense legislative solution we are pushing in all 50 U.S. states: Set the marriage age at 18, without exceptions. Such legislation harms no one, costs nothing and ends a human rights abuse.
Only 42 states to go to eliminate a human rights abuse and nightmarish legal trap that destroys nearly every aspect of American girls’ lives. We promise to keep pushing to make sure the U.S. keeps its promise under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to end forced and child marriage by year 2030.
Your support makes that possible! Please donate now.
The Vermont Coalition to End Child Marriage includes:
Child marriage is an urgent problem in Michigan. 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.
Our research shows that 5,426 children, some as young as 14, were married in Michigan between 2000 and 2021. Twelve of them were not even old enough to consent to sex. Some 95 percent of the children wed were girls married to adult men an average of 4.3 years older — often with devastating, lifelong consequences for the girls. There’s a reason the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
This calls for a protest.
We will Chain-In in Lansing on May 4. We will wear bridal gowns and chains to urge legislators to pass HB4297-4302/SB209-217 & SB246, the simple, commonsense bill package that would end child marriage in Michigan.
Speakers at the Chain-In will include:
We also will sing and chant against forced and child marriage, including a rendition of The Girls You Have Destroyed, a chilling poem/song we wrote about child marriage in the United States.
Chain-In Lansing
May 4 | 9:30 a.m.
West Steps of the Michigan State Capitol
100 N. Capitol Ave., Lansing, MI
Child Marriage in the United States
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.
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.
Join the movement. Chain-In with us to demand an end to this human rights abuse.
The Vermont House of Representatives voted (again) to end child marriage!
As you might recall, the House previously voted YES on legislation to make the marriage age 18, no exceptions, but it had to vote again after the Vermont Senate last week approved a strengthened version of the bill. The new version specifies that emancipated minors are protected, to avoid any confusion.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Carol Ode, now goes to Gov. Phil Scott, who has six days to take action. If he signs the bill — as we expect him to do! — or lets it pass on its own, Vermont will become the eighth U.S. state where our relentless advocacy has helped to eliminate a human rights abuse.
