NOTE: Due to inclement weather, this Chain-In will instead be a “Silent Chain-In” inside the rotunda of the Legislative Building instead of on the outside steps.
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.
Some 5,048 minors as young as 13 were entered into marriage in Washington between 2000 and 2021. More than 80% were girls wed to adult men, and between 38 and 51 marriages occurred with a spousal age difference that met the definition of a sex crime.
Furthermore, child marriage creates a nightmarish legal trap that destroys nearly every aspect of an American girl’s life. 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 Olympia on January 18. We will wear bridal gowns and chains to urge legislators to pass SB5695/HB1455, the simple, commonsense bill that would end child marriage in Washington.
Speakers include:
- Rep. Monica Stonier, legislative champion
- Sen. Manka Dhingra, legislative champion
- Sen. Derek Stanford, legislative champion
- Stephanie Warren, survivor & advocate
- Sara Tasneem, child marriage advocate and survivor
- Kate Yang, child marriage advocate and survivor
- Katherine Cleland, Zonta USA
- Michele Hanash, AHA Foundation
- Fraidy Reiss, Unchained At Last
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 Olympia
January 18 | 12:00 p.m.
North Steps of the Washington State Capitol
416 Sid Snyder Ave. SW, Olympia, WA 98504
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.