We just stood alongside acting Gov. Susan Bysiewicz as she signed the bill we tirelessly promoted for more than six years to make the marriage age in Connecticut 18, no exceptions.
Connecticut is now the ninth U.S. state where we have helped to end child marriage — a stunning victory for the nearly 6.5 million girls who live in those states! Only 41 states to go.
You might remember we Chained-In earlier this month outside the Connecticut State Capitol, in bridal gowns and chains, to protest state senators’ inaction on ending child marriage — and vowed to return every day until the end of the legislative session unless they took action — and it worked! Minutes after our Chain-In ended, senators came outside to tell us they would vote on the bill that day. We sat in the senate chamber in our bridal gowns and chains and watched the senate pass the bill unanimously. (Contrast that with the house vote last month, when 45 representatives voted against ending this human rights abuse.)
Don’t worry if you couldn’t witness this historic victory in person. You can read all about it via the Associated Press, NBC Connecticut, Fox News, Connecticut Mirror, The Hartford Courant, CT Insider, WTNH News8, CT News Junkie, The Messenger and more.
But this victory wasn’t achieved from just one Chain-In. Thanks to the generosity of supporters like the Roberts Family Foundation, Focus For Health and the Jewish Women’s Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, we advocated to end child marriage in Connecticut for more than six years. We formed the Connecticut Coalition to End Child Marriage. We met one-on-one with nearly every Connecticut state legislator. We testified at legislative hearings and submitted memos of support, and we recruited our allies to do the same. We compiled in-depth legal research conducted on a pro bono basis by the law firms White & Case and DLA Piper. We launched email and social media campaigns to target state legislators.
And we had many strong champions in the Connecticut legislature who ensured this bill passed, including Reps. Jillian Gilchrest, Sarah Keitt, Dominique Johnson and Gary Turco and Sens. Mae Flexer, Herron Gaston, Ceci Maher and Gary Winfield.
Previously, dangerous legal loopholes allowed parents to enter 16- and 17-year-olds into marriage in Connecticut with no real legal recourse for a minor who was forced to marry. Emancipated 16- and 17-year-olds could also marry. Marriage before age 18 creates a nightmarish legal trap: Even the most mature minor faces overwhelming legal and practical barriers if they try to resist or escape a forced marriage. Further, marriage before 18 is recognized as a human rights abuse that destroys almost every aspect of an American girl’s life.
Our research found that more than 1,250 minors, some as young as 14, were married in Connecticut between 2000 and 2021. Most were girls wed to adult men.
Connecticut now joins most of its neighbors in the northeast in eliminating marriage before 18, no exceptions: Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont, as well as Minnesota, have all ended child marriage.
The Connecticut Coalition to End Child Marriage includes:
