@Porwest
more from that month
There are times when I read or hear something and think to myself, "No. That just can't be." Such as today's signing into law in New York, by governor Andrew Cuomo, banning child marriage and raising the age of marital consent to 18. At first, since I am no fan of Cuomo, I wanted to cry, "Well, no duh, buddy." But then I learned that in the United States, at present, only five other states fully ban this sort of thing. And that struck me. Because I have always been under the impression that one could not marry under the age of legal consent under any circumstance. This appears not to be the case. In the other 44 states child marriage can be permitted when certain conditions are met such as parental consent, pregnancy, and approval by a judge. On this issue I applaud Andrew Cuomo for making the right decision on this legislation, and I would encourage the governors and legislators in the remaining 44 states that do not fully ban child marriage to consider it. It is shocking to me that in a developed country like the United States, this would not have already been made into law across the country.
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On the other hand ...... I worked with a guy whose mother married his father when she was 14, and he was in his thirties, and they seemed happy. Considering the ridiculously high divorce rate in the USA, I would be tempted to allow marriage at 16 with proper counseling beforehand.
There is a rather high divorce rate in the U.S. But I am not sure marrying kids would solve this problem. Are kids really equipped to make such life altering decisions?
This is a really simplistic argument, and I'm almost embarrassed to make it, but bear with me. Statistically a marriage is more likely to last based on how few sexual partners a woman has had before marriage. The fewer the better. I assume the same holds true for men. The younger the person, (within reason, of course!!), the fewer sex partners they will have had! Ta da! For my next trick, I will show the means for a lasting peace in the mideast.
I actually think there may be some truth to that actually. Perhaps if one has had multiple sex partners before they marry, they already had a propensity to sample the goods, and perhaps marriage does not alter their taste for sampling.