A Republican Representative in Tennessee is trying to introduce new legislation to offer an alternative form of marriage: One that removes minimum age requirements and is aimed at opposite-sex couples only.
Tom Leatherwood is a representative for Arlington, TN. He is the sponsor of HB 233. He says the aim of the bill is to “give an alternative form of marriage for those pastors and other individuals who have a conscientious objection to the current pathway to marriage in our law.”
HB 233 legislates over “common-law” marriage. It would allow a man and a woman to go to a county clerk and simply declare that they’re in a “common law marriage.”
Leatherwood conceded, according to WJHL, “There is not an explicit age limit” mentioned in the bill.
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It would also require the state’s attorney general to defend any local leader or the state if they decided to deny a marriage license to a same-sex couple.
Related: “I told you so”: Liz Cheney’s gay sister responds to her u-turn on same-sex marriage
The bill passed the Tennessee House’s Children and Family Affairs subcommittee on Monday. It is due to be debated in the House Civil Justice Committee today.
At the moment, people can get married in Tennessee at 17 if they have parental consent. It only became illegal for minors to marry in 2018.
At an earlier debate in late March, Leatherwood was explicitly asked by Democratic Rep. Torrey Harris, if his law was passed, “What would stop a 16-year-old going to a courthouse and getting this done, as there’s no age restriction in this law?”
Leatherhead said, “I think it would be construed that minors would not be able to enter into this.”
“Assumed?” asked Harris. “So we’re going to take the assumption that they would not include minors in this?”
Leatherhead, smiling, replied there’s always “a bit of an assumption” on every bill, “because we never know what court will say what on anything.”
Opponents of the bill remain worried that HB 233 could open the door to child marriages. Democratic Nashville Rep. Mike Stewart said the bill offers a “get-out-of-jail-free card for people who are basically committing statutory rape.”
I’m still lost for words. https://t.co/llBU3Zd8xu
— Representative Torrey Harris (@TorreyHarris901) March 27, 2022
NEW: Tennessee Republicans are advancing a bill that creates a separate, privileged class of marriage for heterosexual couples, acting as a loophole to the Supreme Court’s legalization of gay marriage. The bill would also legalize child marriage by eliminating age requirements.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 5, 2022
Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid called the bill, “horrifying and unacceptable.”
MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid tweeted her disgust.
Your daily reminder that Tennessee Republicans are opening the door to adults marrying children. And not one, ranty Q-anon congressperson will even mildly object. Just like they have no quarrel with Trump, Jordan, Gaetz or Roy Moore. Because protecting children is not their goal.
— Joy-Ann (Pro-Democracy) Reid 😷 (@JoyAnnReid) April 5, 2022
Related: Tennessee just snuck through a law to chip away at marriage equality and hardly anyone noticed
The UN defines child marriage as one where one of the participants is under 18. Tennessee, allowing marriage at 17 with parental consent, comes fifth in a ranking of states allowing some form of child marriage (Texas comes top). Only six states fully prohibit child marriage.
If the bill proceeds to the House, it’s likely to pass as it’s dominated by Republicans.
Thanks for making me laugh @CoreyRForrester, but tomorrow when they run this bill through committee-I won’t be laughing:-( https://t.co/DJdIiHqhU2
— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) April 5, 2022
Mister P
There is no end to their stupidity.
Max
soooooo true!
fur_hunter
…….. And we, the taxpayers, pay these MORONS almost $200,000 a year each for their ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, and asininity. Of course, it’s STUPID, IGNORANT republiKKKans who vote them into office. Pathetic!
Bosch
It’s become increasingly clear over the past few decades that people use homophobia as a smokescreen for pedophilia and ephebophilia.
It’s no coincidence that the most homophobic states were the last to abolish child marriage.
white-queer-african
As our 10 year old son will say: “Sicko”!
Chrisk
So basically it’s another exclusive club that only the bigoted loons can use.
We heard non stop about how bad it was to redefine marriage. How only God can do that and how sacred it was and other BS. Even though it’s been redefined many times through out history.
Effing hypocrites and liars. Every single one of them.
Leo
And now it is again being redefined by the extreme right.
GaysForTrump
Where is the outrage over Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson lenient sentences against pedophiles?
Crickets from site. Disgusting.
Pedophiles should get the strictest punishments.
Judge Jackson has a prove track record of lenient jail sentences; allowing these sickos to molest, rape and/or distribute child pornography.
Imagine the uproar from this site if a Republican/Conservative judge. Bunch of hypocrites. And truly disturbing.
Let’s hear your sick twisted defense on her punishments against those that sexually assaulted children.
Bosch
Nice try, gays-with-stockholm-syndrome.
“The commission noted in a 2012 report to Congress that existing sentencing guidelines on crimes involving images of child sexual abuse “fail to differentiate among offenders in terms of their culpability” and result in penalty ranges that “are too severe for some offenders and too lenient for other offenders.””
Judge Brown wants to punish people who assault children HARDER than people who possess child pornography. Of course your clan would take offense to that.
GaysForTrump
Bosch,
Your facts are so twisted.
Would you like a breakdown of cases Judge Brown oversaw involving sex crimes against children and the sentences imposed BY HER vs recommended by federal prosecutors?
Both crimes should be met with harsh punishments. And you give some sort of pass for child pornography distribution? Sicko.
Show me on
ZzBomb
Dude your side is literally trying to legislate child marriages, aka ACTUAL “GROOMING.” As KBJ said, and has been confirmed by numerous judicial over watch sources, she applied the sentences required under law. Your uproar should be over this, not her.
Bosch
Yes, people who abuse children deserve harsher punishment. I’m sorry you don’t feel the same way.
Bosch
You may be interested to know that Josh Hawley never though this was an issue when it wasn’t a game of political polarisation:
“Mr. Hawley himself has voted to confirm at least three federal judges who also handed down sentences in cases involving images of child sexual abuse that were lighter than what the federal guidelines recommended. ”
Oh no! Hypocrisy on the right? Who would have guessed?
GaysForTrump
ZZbomb.
Point out what part in the video someone from the GOP is trying to legalize child marriage?
What was specifically said, line for line, from any Republican that is trying to legislate child marriage?
That’s all you need to reply with. Liar.
Bosch
“Point out what part in the video someone from the GOP is trying to legalize child marriage? ”
Oh lord.
This new law EXPLICITLY removes the age limit. And what colour do you think the states are that still allow child marriage? 50% chance you’ll get that right on your first guess.
If you actually cared about the safety of children, this would bug you. But you don’t care. You just want to bitch at the “left”.
Then again, if you had good reasoning skills, you wouldn’t be a gay for trump.
jcool
you don’t look gay
kitten6126
So, do tell me, what do you consider a “proper” sentence for republikkkan Matt Gaetz?
barryaksarben
Lol you obviously are illiterate!! She was following the GOP s and Trumps new more lenient sentencing guidelines for crimes like pedophilia. Read the transcripts of her cases against pedophile ( LIKE Roy Moore, Trump, Gaetz and most Mormon leaders) defendants. She has shown nothing but comtempt for them but you seem to hear crickets. GO to the dr and have your hearing tested cuz you aint hearing right!! SIck and twisted like your defense of Judge Thomas and his puting pubic hair on cans of soda so he can be a predator to the women he works with or the pedophiles that the GOP has a plethora of. Where are the Q people when Trump is accused in a court of law for raping a 13 yr old girl. And for Tennessee, they love letting OLD men marry young girls and the younger the better. Look at ROY MOORE a TRUE pedo and all those good christian folks eho still support this perv adn still voted for him. Yeah and you seem to forget JOSH DUGGAR molesting his own waaay underage sisters. THAT is one sick bastard. What is your sick and twisted defense of good ole JOH, you are a dumbass troll
Den
GaysForTrump
Where is the outrage over Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson lenient sentences against pedophiles?
Crickets from site. Disgusting.
Pedophiles should get the strictest punishments.
You really go to great lengths to prove over and over that you are an idiot! Unable to think and easily manipulated!! And if you are gay (and not some incredibly stupid straight boy), I’m the queen of Sheba, as the saying goes.
“Judge Jackson has a prove track record of lenient jail sentences; allowing these sickos to molest, rape and/or distribute child pornography.”
AS STATED REPEATEDLY BY THOSE WITH MORE CREDIBILITY THAN YOU WILL EVER HAVE, HER SENTANCING HAS BEEN IN LINE WITH THAT OF MOST OTHER JUDGES, EVEN IDIOT REPUBLICANS LIKE YOU.
Let’s hear your sick twisted defense on her punishments against those that sexually assaulted children. ALMOST ALL THE SEXUAL ASSAULTS OF CHILDREN ARE BY THEIR PARENTS, GUARDIANS OR FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY. IN GOVERNMENT ALMOST ALL THOSE WHO ASSAULT CHILDREN OR TEENS HAVE BEEN REPUBLICANS AND FAR RIGHT CLERICS.
You know what is truly disturbing? The depths of your stupidity, and your hatred for LGBT people. I do not say this easily, but you are a true waste of oxygen that could be nourisning people of value to society, if you catch my meaning.
PubicHairus
GaysForTrump, on a scale of 9.5 to 10, how much do you hate yourself?
Den
He is obviously heterosexual.
He hates US, not himself. If he had any sort of normal or healthy intellect, he would hate himself for his beliefs and actions. But he is too dull for that to ever be the case.
GaysForTrump
The new law does not explicitly remove the age limit. The legal age limit is already determined by state.
I don’t hate myself one bit. But are you proud of yourself for that comment? Are you really that pathetic that you resort to some sort of online bully tactic?
It amazes me the most nasty comments come from the ones that consider themselves so accepting.
Bosch
“It amazes me the most nasty comments come from the ones that consider themselves so accepting.”
You seem to be confused. Tolerance and acceptance requires that we do not tolerate nor accept intolerance.
You are misreprenting a judge and the law just because you’re stuck in some weird “us-vs-them” paradigm with the very people who would put you in jail or an institution if they had the chance.
You think we haven’t noticed which party had all the child abusers? Please.
But please continue, imt dying to show you how nasty my comments can get.
Bosch
“Are you really that pathetic that you resort to some sort of online bully tactic?”
Are you seriously shaming that guy two minutes after calling me a ‘sicko’ for no good reason?
Dumbass.
PubicHairus
I do not consider myself to be a bully any more than you consider yourself to be mentally deranged. We can all live in our glass towers, sweetie! I’m gonna put you down for a 10.
barryaksarben
Being liberal does NOT mean we have to be nice to assholes who come hear to push the right wingnut agenda that is so anti-gay youd have to be self hating IF YOU WERE ACTUALLY GAY that you shouldf be seeking mental health counsiling. We dont have to be nice to our enemies. We are accepting of others who do not mean us harm but we have had way too many attacks from right wing, fake religious BIGOTS to quietly let them spread their hate filled shit
white-queer-african
@GayForTrump, you have clearly not seen my previous respinse to you so I shall repost it for your benefit.
“@GayForTrump, there I corrected the typo for you. I am not going to engage nor debate with you re your absurd claims about Dumph.
What I find fascinating is that all the trolls i.e. Fake Tits M*ntalMarcy, SamB et al, suddenly disappears and who replaces them? GayForTrump. Just go away with your weak and silly statements.”
white-queer-african
Respinse should read response.
Now if only Professor Fake Tits M*ntalMarcy, the one with the smelly fake crack that smokes crack, was still around, it would have immediately pointed out my poor spelling!
Bosch
I’m guessing that @GaysForEpstein’sBuddy must be really upset with abuse apologists Mike Huckabee and Jim Jordan, right? Huckabee said child abuse is “not unforgivable”, in relation to Duggar abusing his sisters. Jim Jordan pretended not to see that lots of boys were being molested under his watch, even though it was brought to his attention multiple times.
And I’m sure he’s even more upset with GOP child abusers and child porn posessors Josh Duggar, or Matt Gaetz, or George Nader, or Ruben Verastigui, or Tim Nolan, or Ralph Shortey, or Ben Gibson, or Adam Hageman, or Mark Foley, or Roy Moore, or Dennis Hastert…
Ah, but it’s politically inconvenient to hate ACTUAL pedophiles, so let’s just smear a judge because she’s liberal, black, and female.
Bosch
I forgot Anton Lazzaro.
Eternal.Cowboy
“Where is the outrage over Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson lenient sentences against pedophiles?”
Other than trolls, people don’t get bent out of shape about Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz fantasy issues.
But since you offered, please show the break down of her sentencing differed from other federal judges in similar cases?
Brian
I’m continually astonished by the lack of research skills among American adults. By about 4th grade, I was already better at using libraries, finding reputable sources, filtering information, and following the reasoning than whoever this “GaysForTrump” person is. I wish teachers would be stricter and not allow idiots to sail through school, unleashed onto the rest of us. People like him are too dumb to see how dumb they are, and yet they have this unwavering confidence on every topic. This is exhausting.
twomen4u
I live in FL and we abolished common law marriage over 20 years ago. At the time you had to live together for 7 years to be common law and if you broke up after the 7 years you had to get a regular divorce. Of course, gay people were not included so we just had to shack up until 2015.
I lived for many years in ET and those people there are nuts.
GayVeteranOfcr
“Abolished” common law? No, as Florida recognizes such marriages that were made outside of Florida and in another state where such marriages were legal.
Constitution Article IV “Full Faith and Credit” – look it up.
Florida just won’t CREATE common law marriages, but it must recognize them.
This same legal principle also applies to same sex marriage, but DOMA federal law attempted to negate the Constitutional guarantees and failed.
GayVeteranOfcr
Marriage, per se, is the purview of the several States, or was until the federal DOMA law took marriage into “federal interest” and thereby placed it firmly within Constitution Article III Supreme Court jurisdiction, and that led eventually to same sex marriage.
Regarding age, Georgia State had an interesting legal case there that State law did not address as a specific case, where two teens, under the age of consent and against their parents’ wishes petitioned the court to allow them to get married despite having no parental consent. The judge ruled that, since Georgia State law did not pertain to the situation, he relied on English Common Law [that had been “Received” by Georgia] that covered the situation where a teenage girl was pregnant and the teenage boy formally admitted parentage, and the court granted permission for the two to marry.
To seize marriage in the way that this Representative proposes would trample on the marriage laws of all 50 states and territories and certainly run afoul of the “equal protection” guarantees of the Constitution 14th Amendment, the basis for the Obergefell v. Hodges same sex marriage case Supreme Court decision.
Federal law may NOT discriminate against a group of persons and treat them unequally, as that is unconstitutional under this ruling. Q.E.D.
Read Justice Kennedy’s decision to learn the scope and extent of it.
A personal note about DOMA: legal minds saw that it was the path to same sex marriage when it was passed under the Clinton Administration, as it seized marriage as “federal interest” and thus placed it under Supreme Court Article III direct jurisdiction.
wikidBSTN
Missing the age requirement is obvious, but developing a separate system for heterosexuals only will still violate the Equal Protection Clause. This guy is just plain stupid. As is the Committee that advanced the bill.
Leo
I was waiting for someone to notice that.
gregg2010
Let’s hear it for child marriages! A 50 year old woman and an an 18 year old man!
graphicjack
And what’s ‘Q’s response to this, I wonder? Funny how they’re always silent when it’s GOPs who want to marry/f#$% minors…
bambamboom777
Sounds like Republicans are trying to redefine marriage. Guess they lied about that too. Anymore, when a Republican opens their mouth, I assume the sounds are coming out of it are lies until I’m proven otherwise. But I’m not going to waste my time listening anything they have to say. It’s nothing but pure toxic mindless ignorance. People who can’t act like adults deserve no respect. Give back to them everything they inflict on the rest of the world.
BigJohnSF
I think the point of this is that if the child is married to their rapist, it isn’t really rape.
James
Another sick anti gay nut job republican. Of course the log cabin republicans love him. They’re sick too.
white-queer-african
The last we heard from @GayForTrump was 4 hours ago. No rebuttals to all the comments attacking it’s standpoint? The net must be down AGAIN in Mother Russia!
Den
I doubt he is in “Mother Russia”. There is no shortage of backwards enclaves here in the US where Heterosexual White Nationalists think the can pass for gay men to troll sites like this…assuming that we are as stupid as they are. GaysForTrump probably posts his crap while his batches of meth are cooking in the second trailer on his trailer park parcel, and his 13 year old sister-wife is cleaning the fresh road kill he found earlier (“Damn, ‘possum for dinner again! Praise Jesus”).
hansniemeijer
It is common and the law that two people can get married in the USA. GOP means Small Minded Party.
Creamsicle
I know this isn’t remotely the point of this post, but wow, Rep. Harris is cute.