Bill against marrying your first cousin fails to pass in Florida
A Florida ban against marriage between first cousins has failed to pass in the Florida Senate.
State lawmakers in the area decided that Floridians are still permitted, by law, to tie the knot with their first cousins, despite the Sunshine State banning marriage between all other family members.
The decision came down to the simple fact that the lawmakers involved in the affair ran out of time, after disagreeing over a part of the bill which, in turn, prevented the whole thing from passing before the designated end of the session.
There are still a number of people directly opposed to the marriage between first cousins. One such person is Dean Black, a Republican State Representative.
“There are plenty of people here, and there are plenty of people you can find to be your lifelong partner without looking to your first cousin,” Black shared with Action News Jax.
The failed bill posits, “A man may not marry any woman to whom he is related by lineal consanguinity…A woman may not marry any man to whom she is related by lineal consanguinity.”
If the legislation had gone ahead, incestuous marriages would not have been recognised by the State from July 1st.
This leaves Black unsure as to the future of the Bill. Importantly, he believes that cousin marriages “should come back, whether it’s a standalone bill, whether it’s tagged onto some other bill. Not really sure. We’ll have to see.”
Florida isn’t the only state where first cousins can marry; the ceremony is still legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.
Surprisingly, it is also still legal in the UK; first-cousin marriage was prohibited for almost 1,000 years in England until the law was reversed in the 16th century by Henry VIII.