Kentucky's 'child bride' bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed

[DonViejo]

Source: Courier-Journal




Deborah Yetter, Louisville Courier Journal Published 4:08 p.m. ET March 1, 2018 | Updated 11:32 a.m. ET March 2, 2018

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A bill to make 18 the legal age for marriage in Kentucky has stalled in a Senate committee amid concerns about the rights of parents to allow children to wed at a younger age, according to several lawmakers.

Known as the "child bride" bill, Senate Bill 48 was pulled off the agenda just hours before a scheduled vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee for the second time in two weeks.

"SO disappointed! My SB 48 (outlaw child marriage) won’t be called for a vote," sponsor Julie Raque Adams, a Louisville Republican, said in a Tweet early Thursday. "It is disgusting that lobbying organizations would embrace kids marrying adults. We see evidence of parents who are addicted, abusive, neglectful pushing their children into predatory arms. Appalling."

Eileen Recktenwald, the executive director of the Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, was more outspoken. "This is legalized rape of children," she said. "We cannot allow that to continue in Kentucky, and I cannot believe we are even debating this is the year 2018 in the United States."




Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2018/03/01/child-marriage-kentucky-brides-parents-rights/385489002/

[AtheistCrusader]

1. I wish the article did more to name the groups opposing the bill.

[Leghorn21]

4. Heres one, A - Im gonna go look em up

Donna Pollard, a Louisville woman who said she was married at 16 to an older man who began sexually abusing her when she was 14, has advocated for the bill. She told Courier Journal that opponents include the Kentucky Family Foundation, a Lexington-based conservative group that lobbies lawmakers on social issues. Family Foundation Executive Director Kent Ostrander did not respond to requests for comment.

[Leghorn21]

5. Info - KY family sick fucks united

Website: http://www.kentuckyfamily.org/

Email: [e-mail]

Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/kentuckyfamily

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Is it wront that I'm afraid to click their site here at work?

I wonder who else. Most especially, those pumping money into the lobbying effort against the bill.

I want to know how much this issue costs for them.

[hlthe2b]

2. "This is legalized rape of children"... yup, I agree

[keithbvadu2]

3. Old enough to marry

[Fred Sanders]

15. Tell us all again how Sharia law is worse than Maria law? Both demean women.

[pnwmom]

18. What is Maria law? nt

[jmowreader]

27. Maria is the Latin spelling of the name of the mother of Christ

[pnwmom]

28. Well, she doesn't have anything to do with the fundie mind-set that's prevalent

in the House.

In fact, the fundies often accuse Catholics of being Mary-worshippers.

So they should make up another name to apply to these right-wingers.

[jmowreader]

31. I think its a very good name

The only difference between sharia and whatever the hell our religious zealots want to turn this country into is the symbol on the church door.

[demigoddess]

6. Isn't it interesting, the legally marrying 13 year olds never seem to be the male.

Have them make a law allowing only 13 year old males to marry and they will not pass that. It has to be the girl who is young, isn't it?

[AtheistCrusader]

13. Seems to be some sort of religious thing around 'purity'.

At least, with religion, it seems to be on the decline.

[christx30]

23. If all one cares about is cranking out babies,

you gotta marry the daughters off early to maximize the number of fertile years.
And now I need to go take a shower and scrub off that image with steel wool. Feel sick typing that out. Screw Kentucky.

[TwistOneUp]

7. Beyond words...

I can't properly comment on what I would do if some adult man came to my home to ask me for my blessing to propose to my 13yr old, as I don't want to violate DU guidelines. Let's just say I'd "make the news".

Where I grew up in Chicago, people got beaten badly, sometimes fatally, for this kind of thing. The joke was, "13 will get you 20" (years in jail). Assuming you *got* to jail. Yet in a good Christian Red State, it's law! Amazing.

And they call homosexuals perverts! What flaming hypocrites.

[keithbvadu2]

17. Knock! Knock! Judge Roy Moore at the door, asking for a date.

Knock! Knock! Judge Roy Moore at the door, asking for a date.

[montana_hazeleyes]

8. This is pure evil.

No parent, or anyone else should be able to sign a child over to these perverts.

I won't go in to details, but I had my life ruined, to this very day by this.

[politicaljunkie41910]

35. Sorry to hear that your life was ruined, but I hope you can one day take back your life from this

reprehensible experience. Remember, this wasn't your fault. You were a child and it was the adults who failed you, not the other way around. If you haven't already obtained counseling, perhaps it might help you to come to terms with this issue and take back your life. Your life might have been ruined, but as long as you are breathing you can determine your future and not let what happened to you define you for the rest of your life. Good luck and I wish for you that you wake up tomorrow and say to yourself, "Today is the first day of my New Life. From this day forward, I will no longer punish myself with the belief that my life is ruined forever for the actions of others which I had no control over." Good luck and best wishes.

But I hope you will keep using your voice, even if only anonymously, to speak out against this abuse of young girls. Your voice might make a difference for another young girl since for some sick reason these people don't think this practice has a detrimental impact on young girls lives.

[d_r]

9. the thing you have to understand is

if parents can't let force their daughters get married when they are 13 or 14, then what are they going to do when their daughters get pregnant and the parents want to show off to their church friends how against abortion they are?

edited because words

[Ohiogal]

10. This is beyond disgusting and appalling.

What kind of sick parents would willingly hand over their little girl to an older lech for legalized rape?

And why is this even debatable????

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Tradition, specifically religious tradition.

Most of our social ills tie back to it one way or another.

[LanternWaste]

16. No more and no less than greed, nationalism, poverty, and wealth disparity.

"Most of our social ills tie back to it one way or another."

No more and no less than greed, nationalism, poverty, and wealth disparity; which all flourish regardless of the presence or absence of religion. I mean, sure-- it's a great bumper sticker, has a beat and you can dance to it.

But I get it... focusing on the one rather than the whole allows us to better maintain our pretenses as well as validate our biases. It's a win-win. And fits on a t-shirt.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. American Exceptionalism as a notion of 'nationalism' is always bound up in religious trappings.

I've yet to experience it without.

Greed... I'll concede that point.

[TwistOneUp]

26. You got dat right! nt

[bullwinkle428]

12. Roy Moore, your future Senate seat is calling!

[lagomorph777]

19. Marriage is between one man and one woman...but, hey, you know, define "woman"....

Pigs.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

20. Child marriage violates basic human rights. Period.

All humans should be allowed to mature enough to make sound, rational decisions on their own regarding something that will radically affect their entire adult life.

No culture, religion, government or society should be able to strip any human - male or female - of that basic right.

nuf sed.

[Bayard]

22. Dammitt!

I hate seeing this kind of crap because then everybody thinks all Kentuckians think this way.

This has to be over in the backwoods of Appalachia. Of course, 13 yr. olds across the country get molested every day. This just tries to make it legal.

[Yavin4]

24. I'm a Coastal Elitist and yes, I look down on these people.

You don't hear about this shit in NYC, and if you do, authorities are called in and people go to jail.

[Duppers]

25. Sick! "The 'ugly' reality of child marriage in the U.S."

From CBS News last year:
"In a survey of marriage licenses compiled by Unchained At Last, at least 167,000 children under 18 were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010. (That number is likely on the conservative side, as Unchained At Last could obtain age data from only 38 U.S. states.)

The vast majority of those children were girls married off to adult men, Reiss said."

Read whole article, please:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-marriage-in-the-u-s-surprisingly-widespread/

Then see the chart on Wikipedia on
"Age of marriage in the United States."
The exceptions, my gawd!



And this shit is supported by "good christian" folk! All Hump45 voters, I'm sure.

[mainer]

29. Why stop at 13? Why not sell your daughter at 6 years old?

I bet a 6-year-old would bring a higher price.

[get the red out]

30. Extremist religion

MUST start losing to human rights or this country will be nothing to be proud of. I am already not proud to be a Kentuckian.

[olddad56]

32. wondering: when a couple divorces in Kentucky, are they still legally brother and sister?

[tavernier]

33. Yes. Same as their parents.

(And I do offer my sincere apologies to our Kentucky DU members. I had to go for the joke, but you know I love you.)

[oasis]

34. Huh?