California has officially banned child marriage, with Governor Gavin Newsom signing legislation to end the practice that is still legal in 32 US states.
The new law, which will come into effect on 1 January, states people must be 18 to get married in the Golden State.
Newsom called it a “long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors”. He signed the bill into law with Courtney Stodden, whose parents allowed her to marry a 50-year-old Hollywood actor when she was just 16.
If you were a civil war veteran and you died, you could pass your military pension on to your wife. Because of this, it wasn’t uncommon for an elderly man to marry a young girl so she would get the pension. Often the girl would do basic chores for the elderly man in exchange. Because of this practice the last civil war widow died in 2020 (she married a 93 year old veteran when she was 17). A certain amount of the attitude is a weird cultural relic coming from this practice.
Pretty sure there are no more civil war veterans, so let’s just go ahead and make child marriage illegal now. The “protect the children” party surely would have no problem banning child marriage, right? Right?