California lawmakers are refusing to end child marriage. And you can help change their minds.
We at Unchained helped to write and promote SB 273 to end all marriage before 18 in California, without exceptions. But legislators amended the bill beyond recognition; in its current form, it would do more harm than good.
Take action! Email California legislators here to urge them to kill SB 273 and introduce legislation to end all child marriage. It only takes a minute.
The marriage age in California is 18, but the law includes a dangerous loophole: Children of any age may marry with parental “consent” and judicial approval.
However, children can easily be forced to marry before they turn 18 and become legal adults, because they face overwhelming legal and practical barriers if they try to leave home, enter a domestic-violence shelter, retain an attorney or bring a legal action. Parental “consent” does not mitigate that danger: When a child is forced to marry, the perpetrators are almost always the parents.
Further, child marriage devastates girls’ lives. It destroys their health, education and economic opportunities, and increases their risk of experiencing violence. In fact, the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a “human rights abuse.”
The current version of SB 273 would continue to allow a child of any age to marry, and would erect meaningless barriers that are insufficient to protect children from forced marriage or from the harms of early marriage.
In addition, the current version of SB 273 would continue to undermine statutory-rape laws and give rapists a “get out of jail free” card. The age of consent to have sex in California is 18, and someone who has sex with a child under 18 can be charged with a felony or misdemeanor, depending on the parties’ age difference. However, those protections disappear as soon as a marriage license is issued, because the statutory-rape law exempts married couples.
A full rebuttal of the current version of SB 273 is here, in the form of the opposition letter we submitted to the California legislature on August 9.
Earlier this year, we got Delaware and New Jersey to end all child marriage – the first two U.S. states to do so. Other states are moving to do the same. Why is California lagging behind?
We at Unchained At Last descended on the Jersey Shore yesterday with some 50 activists – most of us wearing white bridal gowns and veils, with chains on our wrists – for the first ever Chain-In Celebration.
We cheered the heroes and allies – including New Jersey’s Sen. Nellie Pou and Asm. Nancy Munoz – who helped us to achieve our historic victories in Delaware and New Jersey, where we (finally!) ended child marriage. And we sent a powerful message to the 48 other states: We’re coming for you next.
We lead a growing national movement to end child marriage in the U.S., because child marriage often is forced marriage. Child marriage was legal in all 50 U.S. states – until Delaware became the first U.S. state to end child marriage in May, and New Jersey followed in June.
Be part of the movement – and get a good laugh – by joining us and Trevor Noah in a few weeks for an evening of hilarity:
Months ago, we on the Unchained team vowed: When the first U.S. state finally passed the legislation we’re promoting to end all child marriage, without exceptions, each of us would get a tattoo to commemorate the victory.
Delaware became that first state in May (and New Jersey followed soon thereafter). And, yes, we kept our promise.
You don’t need to get a tattoo to be part of the national movement we lead to end child marriage in the U.S. Just join these upcoming events:
Finally! We ended child marriage in Delaware and New Jersey, giving us two states down and 48 to go in the fight to end child marriage in the United States.
This calls for a Chain-In Celebration.
We at Unchained At Last invite you to join us at the Jersey Shore on August 1 for the first ever Chain-In Celebration. We’ll wear the bridal gowns and chains we always wear at Chain-Ins (which we provide!), but we’ll skip the tape on our mouths so we can smile and cheer on the heroes who made this happen – including New Jersey’s Sen. Nellie Pou and Asm. Nancy Munoz – while we also urge 48 states to follow Delaware and New Jersey’s lead.
We. Did. It. We just ended child marriage in the second U.S. state.
Just moments ago, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill we at Unchained wrote and relentlessly promoted for three years, to end all marriage before 18 in New Jersey, no exceptions.
It’s a good week for girls and women. Yesterday, Gov. John Carney and legislators in Delaware honored us at a ceremonial signing of the same bill, which last month made Delaware the first U.S. state to end child marriage.
And tonight we head to Malaysia for the global Girls Not Brides meeting – where, for the first time in history, we can report good news from the United States in the global effort to eradicate a human-rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
We couldn’t have done any of this without your support. Thank you for following/liking/tweeting us on social media, flooding governor’s and legislators’ offices with calls and emails, Chaining-In with us and supporting us financially.
Read more here about the national movement we lead to end child marriage in the U.S., which now counts two down, 48 to go.
Gov. John Carney and legislators in Delaware today honored us at a ceremonial signing of the bill to end child marriage. Delaware is the first U.S. state to end this human-rights abuse.
We would like to thank Rep. Kim Williams, who introduced the bill to end child marriage and relentlessly pushed for its passage, and the coalition of women’s groups who helped garner support for this important legislation, including:
We on the Unchained team spent the last three years pushing to end child marriage. We Chained-In, spoke out and took action. But legislators in state after state rejected or down bills to end child marriage, until now.
Great news for girls in New Jersey! The state assembly just voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill we helped to write to end child marriage. The bill now heads to Gov. Murphy’s desk.
And you can convince him to sign it. PLEASE EMAIL MURPHY HERE.
Remember: The same bill passed last year with overwhelming, bipartisan support, but then-Gov. Chris Christie conditionally vetoed it. Let’s not let the same thing happen this time.
Also remember: The bill faced obstacles this year too. After it passed easily in the senate, the assembly speaker pulled the bill from the agenda the request of Asm. Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), who insisted the bible requires girls who are raped to marry their rapist.
You helped us to fight back. We overwhelmed the speaker with emails, calls and tweets and convinced him to put the bill back on the agenda. Let’s do the same now with Gov. Murphy.
Read more here about the national movement we lead to end child marriage in America.
We at Unchained At Last made some serious noise. And New Jersey legislators heard us.
They put the bill to end child marriage back on the assembly agenda for June 7 – after they had removed it May 24 because one legislator insisted the bible requires a girl who is raped to marry her rapist.
If you were one of the hundreds of people who Chained-In June 3, or emailed and called the assembly speaker and expressed outrage on social media over the last 10 days, thank you. You made this happen.
Of course, the fight is not yet over. Please continue to make noise until New Jersey follows Delaware’s lead and becomes the second U.S. state to end child marriage, a human-rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives. Then only 48 states to go.
Read more here about the national movement we lead to end child marriage in America.
Nearly 30 protesters joined Unchained At Last outside the office of Assemblyman Gary Schaer in Passaic on Sunday – dressed in bridal gowns and veils, with arms chained and mouths taped – to send a powerful message to Schaer and other New Jersey lawmakers: Pass A865, the bill to end child marriage, without exceptions.
“Gary Schaer. Show you care. Let’s be just like Delaware,” the protesters chanted from the sidewalk outside Schaer’s office.
New Jersey was about to become the second U.S. state to end all child marriage, until the assembly speaker pulled A865 from the assembly agenda on May 24 at the request of Asm. Gary Schaer, who wants to weaken the bill and leave children at risk of forced child marriage. Schaer suddenly decided ending a human-rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives might somehow offend the Orthodox Jewish community. We believe Schaer was only referring to one biblical law, one that required a rapist to marry his victim and pay her father 50 shekels of silver.
Dawn Tyree was 11 when a family friend began raping her. And she was 13 when she got pregnant and her family pressured her to marry her 32-year-old rapist in Texas to avoid a criminal investigation.
This is what happens when child marriage remains legal in 49 U.S. states, despite the movement we at Unchained At Last lead to end child marriage in America, as Nicholas Kristof explains today in the New York Times.
“It’s frustrating that legislators cling to archaic marriage laws linked to so much abuse,” Kristof says.
But Kristof points to the victory we achieved last month in Delaware, which became the first U.S. state to ban child marriage, as evidence that things are about to change. As our Fraidy Reiss tells Kristof, “This is a historic moment for women and girls, where we’re finally ending this relic from a sexist past that is destroying girls’ lives.”
Read Kristof’s column here.
And read here about the national movement.
