Chris Jones: Greene Publishing, Inc.
In the State of Florida, it is currently perfectly legal for someone 16 or 17-years-old to marry, given parental consent. However, a controversial law exists that makes it legal for someone of any age, who has their own child, to marry. That means that if a 12 or 13-year old becomes pregnant and has a child, they could be married. One example of this is Florida native Sherry Johnson.
Johnson was raped repeatedly as a young girl, became pregnant at age 10, had a baby, and was forced to marry her rapist at age 11. Johnson wrote a memoire called “Forgiving the Unforgivable” in 2013. “I was told that I needed to marry. And because of religion reasons, marriage was the best outcome of the situation — to put the handcuffs on me and not him,” said Johnson. “But my handcuffs were a veil and a white dress that my mom made.”
According to Johnson, her family attended a conservative Pentecostal church, and other girls of a similar age periodically also married, often to hide rapes by church elders.
In 2013, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill banning marriage under the age of 16, but it stalled in the Senate. However, in mid-August of this year, Fort Myers Florida Republican Lizbeth Benacquisto resumed efforts to prohibit minors from marrying.
Senate Bill (SB) 140 was filed on Monday, Aug. 14. The bill states “A license to marry may not be issued to any person under the age of 18.”
The number of child marriages has been falling, but every state in America still allows underage girls to marry, typically with the consent of parents, a judge or both. Twenty-seven states, including Florida, do not even set a minimum age by statute.
Marriage under the age of 16 is rare in Florida. According to the state’s Department of Health, four 15-year-old girls married in 2016. No boys did. Since 2013, 22 boys and girls younger than 16 have married in Florida. In every case, a pregnancy was involved.
Overall, Florida data shows 80 percent of minors who marry are girls wed to adult men. Such a sexual relationship would often violate statutory rape laws, but marriage is making it legal.
Fraidy Reiss is the Founder and Executive Director of Unchained at Last, a not-for-profit dedicated to helping women escape or resist arranged or forced marriages. According to Reiss, in one extreme 2004 case, a 17-year-old female married an 83-year-old man.
The Florida Legislature will consider the bill during the 2018 session.