California assembly members just voted UNANIMOUSLY to ban child marriage — so the bill we’ve been promoting for nine years is finally headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature!
If he signs, the Golden State will be the 18th state where our relentless advocacy has led to a marriage age of 18, no exceptions, and girls are no longer legally subjected to a human rights abuse and nightmarish legal trap.
Let’s keep up the momentum!
Stand up with us and do a wild victory dance, because the California senate just UNANIMOUSLY passed the bill we have been promoting relentlessly in the state since 2017 to ban child marriage.
If the state assembly approves the bill before August 31, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signs it, we will finally, after nearly a decade of advocating and begging, add the Golden State to our list of legislative victories. That brag-worthy list currently includes 17 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and two territories where we have convinced legislators to eliminate a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
You can help us add California and every other state to the list. Please donate now to allow us to keep fighting on behalf of girls to make the marriage age 18, no exceptions, across the nation.
Escaping the horror of forced marriage requires courage, determination — and a badass lawyer.
You can be that badass lawyer.
We are looking to hire a fierce Senior Attorney to provide crucial legal representation to our brave clients as they break their chains and rebuild their lives. What are you waiting for? Apply now.
We are finally making progress in our epic battle to ban child marriage in California.
After nine years of our pushing, begging, shaming, fuming and otherwise making a commotion, a bill to set the marriage age at 18, no exceptions, passed last week out of the senate Judiciary committee. This is the FIRST TIME such a bill has made it over this first hurdle in the Golden State. !!!
We finally have a real shot at updating one of the most dangerous, archaic marriage-age laws in world — which currently sets the marriage age at ZERO. We finally have a chance to end a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives, in the most populous state in the United States.
We need your help to keep up the momentum. If you live in California, email your state legislators here to urge quick and decisive action. And wherever you live, please donate now to help our tiny team achieve its huge mission.
We descended on the Ohio statehouse this week, dressed in bridal gowns and chains, to demand that legislators stop stalling the popular, bipartisan bill to ban child marriage.
Some 30 chained brides joined our chain-in protest — which got huge media coverage from print, television, radio and online outlets, including NBC4, the Columbus Dispatch, Spectrum News 1, ABC News, Ohio Capital Journal and more.
Speakers at the Chain-In included:
Watch our video footage of the Chain-In on Instagram.
Wherever you live, we need your help to build on the chain-in momentum. Please take a minute now to email crucial Ohio legislators and tell them girls matter.
Ohio legislators are refusing to move simple, commonsense legislation that would set the marriage age at 18, no exceptions. It would end a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives, creates a nightmarish legal trap for them and legalizes the trafficking of teens under the guise of marriage.
This calls for a protest.
We at Unchained At Last urge you to Chain-In with us in Columbus on June 3. We’ll gather at the statehouse wearing bridal gowns and veils, with our arms chained and mouths taped, to protest forced and child marriage and urge legislators to pass the bill to ban child marriage.
We provide the bridal gowns, veils and chains. All you need to do is register below and join us to insist Ohio legislators stand up for girls!
June 3 | 1:00 p.m.
Ohio Statehouse
1 Capitol Sq., Columbus, OH
Register here
Speakers include:
Oklahoma just became the 17th state where we have helped to ban child marriage! Gov. Kevin Stitt declined to sign or veto the bill the legislature sent him to make the marriage age 18, no exceptions — so it passed into law without him.
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Until now the marriage age in Oklahoma has been ZERO, and some 3,452 minors were entered into marriage in the Sooner State between 2000 and 2021, mostly girls wed to adult men. And the suffering of these girls is profound: Oklahoma’s marriage-age laws have created a workaround for statutory rape laws and for human trafficking laws.
Besides, marriage before age 18 is recognized as a human rights abuse and as a particularly egregious form of forced marriage, which is a form of modern slavery.
So the law that just passed, which will go into effect in November, is a huge win for the nearly 490,000 girls in Oklahoma. But 33 other states — home to some 26 million girls — still allow child marriage. Let’s join forces to change that!
Oh, what a beautiful mornin’. The Oklahoma house of representatives last night passed a bill to ban child marriage in the Sooner State (by a 51-36 vote)!
The senate already unanimously approved the bill, so now it goes to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s desk. If he signs it, Oklahoma will become the 17th U.S. state where we have helped to ban child marriage, a human rights abuse that destroys girls’ lives.
We need your help in Colorado. Legislators there are pushing legislation that would keep child marriage legal — but limit the spousal age limit to 10 years. TEN YEARS!
We say HELL TO THE NO to legislation that encourages men in their mid- to late-20s to prey on high school girls.
We need you to join us on social media now to tell Colorado lawmakers: Girls matter. Make the marriage age 18, no exceptions.
We are kicking serious butt in our push to ban child marriage in all 50 U.S. states.
Legislation to eliminate this human rights abuse advanced this week in Oklahoma and Colorado. In both states, the senate approved the bill to make the marriage age 18, no exceptions — by a UNANIMOUS vote in Oklahoma — and in both states the bill now heads to the house of representatives.
We are pushing especially hard in Colorado, where the bill faces shocking opposition, as our Fraidy Reiss recently partnered with Chelsea Clinton to explain in the Denver Post. We have been spending time in Denver to testify at a legislative hearing and meet with every legislator to urge support.
You can help! If you live in either of these states, please urge your state senators to vote YES on these bills. Wherever you live, track our progress and keep cheering us on.
