Child marriage is an urgent problem in Michigan. 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.
Our research shows that 5,426 children, some as young as 14, were married in Michigan between 2000 and 2021. Twelve of them were not even old enough to consent to sex. Some 95 percent of the children wed were girls married to adult men an average of 4.3 years older — often with devastating, lifelong consequences for the girls. 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 Lansing on May 4. We will wear bridal gowns and chains to urge legislators to pass HB4297-4302/SB209-217 & SB246, the simple, commonsense bill package that would end child marriage in Michigan.
Speakers at the Chain-In will include:
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 Lansing
May 4 | 9:30 a.m.
West Steps of the Michigan State Capitol
100 N. Capitol Ave., Lansing, MI
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.
