https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/opinion/sunday/it-was-forced-on-me-child-marriage-in-the-us.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-4&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

Here's an excerpt:

"When she was a scrawny 11-year-old, Sherry Johnson found out one day that she was about to be married to a 20-year-old member of her church who had raped her.

“It was forced on me,” she recalls. She had become pregnant, she says, and child welfare authorities were investigating — so her family and church officials decided the simplest way to avoid a messy criminal case was to organize a wedding.

“My mom asked me if I wanted to get married, and I said, ‘I don’t know, what is marriage, how do I act like a wife?’” Johnson remembers today, many years later. “She said, ‘Well, I guess you’re just going to get married.’”

So she was. A government clerk in Tampa, Fla., refused to marry an 11-year-old, even though this was legal in the state, so the wedding party went to nearby Pinellas County, where the clerk issued a marriage license. The license (which I’ve examined) lists her birth date, so officials were aware of her age.

Not surprisingly, the marriage didn’t work out — two-thirds of marriages of underage girls don’t last, one study found — but it did interrupt Johnson’s attendance at elementary school. Today she is campaigning for a state law to curb underage marriages, part of a nationwide movement to end child marriage in America. Meanwhile, children 16 and under are still being married in Florida at a rate of one every few days.

Continue reading the main story

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/11/why-does-the-united-states-still-let-12-year-old-girls-get-married/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2017 02:08AM by anybody.

Someone recently introduced legislation in California to completely ban child marriage. I hope that it passes.

No, at 11 years old, living under her parents roof, she had no power to just walk away. She is a victim. Now as an adult I hope she succeeds at overcoming her brutal past and get laws passed to protect children.

A marriage between a rapist and his victim didn't work out? That's like my membership in TSCC not working out.

Someone should put her parents and the rapist in prison.

Is there a statute of limitations for rape in Florida? Because barring that, the rapist could still be prosecuted for his crime.

According to the article, it is legal in Florida.


"A government clerk in Tampa, Fla., refused to marry an 11-year-old, even though this was legal in the state, so the wedding party went to nearby Pinellas County, where the clerk issued a marriage license. The license (which I’ve examined) lists her birth date, so officials were aware of her age."

Rape is not legal in Florida. That's what I was addressing. Not under age kids being forced into marriage by parents or church. There ought to be a law against that too.

For rape, if there is no statute of limitations, the rapist could still be prosecuted if she were to bring charges.

It would carry the additional charge of statutory rape to go with it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2017 10:47AM by Amyjo.

I hope that she is successful. I think that the minimum age to marry should be 18.

Like many in the UK I was fed (and believed) the propaganda that in the southern states the age of consent had been lowered as a measure against the black population getting too large in proportion to the white population (bad white christians). Quite why this propaganda was spread and accepted by so many is another issue altogether, but the fact of the matter that I checked out recently, after assuming the US to be a bit like the UK and holding generally universal consent laws around sixteen and marriage around eighteen (sixteen in scotland with parental consent), was that I found consent laws differed between states and are not child centered at all - in fact, as demonstrated by this article, they protect sexual abusers.

I was horrified to discover that this was the case. In my opinion sex before sixteen with anyone more than three years older is abuse. It is even the way the law is considered here in the UK - a three year age gap is generally allowed when deciding whether or not coercion has taken place when one or both participants are under sixteen.

An eleven year old girl is just a child - a sexualised eleven year old is a victim of extreme child abuse. When sanctioned by parents the parents should be charged with criminal negligence and child endangerment.

Horrifying.