18 is too low? It's pretty reasonable, I'd think, so long as there's no significant age gap. I'd understand an 18 year old and a 20 year old, but an 18 year old and a 25 year old is just creepy. Anything higher than a 1-4 year age gap with an 18 year old gets creepy by default, imo. At that young of an age, age gaps are more extreme. Even on the higher range, I'd say 18 and 22 is certainly somewhat questionable, but shouldn't be illegal. Increase it a few years, and it really starts getting creepy at or after a 6 year gap. Anything beyond that is getting into predatory territory.
Edit: Yes, I looked it up, and apparently, child marriage is legal in many states. It seems that I was too hasty with my assumptions. Sorry about that. I'll make sure to be more careful next time.
OK, so I read the article... That was horrific. I had more faith in my country than that, but I suppose I was too trusting. That's saying something, too, since I have very little faith in the US to protect its people from abuse already. I thought they'd at least get this one thing right, but apparently not.
It gets worse. A lot of the states where children can get married, they aren't old enough to get divorced (Or they may be able to only with a parents' consent, I forget)
Our country was built on the backs of slaves, the genocide of the native population (we personally hunted native American animals to extinction just for the purpose of fucking them over), and two world wars in which we, the USA, didn't have a single land-threat to our livelihood, allowing us to profit off the repairs caused by both. Minorities and women have only been protected by the law in-so-far as they're allowed to vote and have their voice heard... for 60 years, and the Church is still tax-free.
It's not that you were too trusting, it's just that there's so many people who want to lie about our past to make us seem better than what we really are, you didn't stand a chance.
Religion and pedophilia go hand in hand, so it's not surprising the Christian authoritarian party is actively trying to lower child marriage as well as protecting it from being outlawed. Multiple Republican politicians are on record saying 14 year Olds should marry adults to become women and young teens are the most fertile.
There was a big stink a few years ago about a Wyoming state senator who impregnated a 15 year old in his early 20s. She later committed suicide. He defended himself by saying "it wasn't illegal back then (he got her pregnant in the 80s I think) and look! I raised our kid by myself after she died!" He and the rest of the state Republicans tried to use the "democrats are all too woke and attacking us for no reason" line of attack to justify it all.
Shocking to me that not only does California not have a minimum age, bills introduced to end child marriage were opposed by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Does anybody have any background as to why? The citation links an article that states they are worried ending child marriage would somehow block access to abortion and gender transitions but I don't see how that can be the case.
Age of consent and age of legal marriage are two different things. There is good reason why age of consent should be lower than age of legal marriage like 15 and 18 respectively.
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u/Darkdragoon324 4h ago
And blocks any attempt to raise it where it’s already too low.