Not a ‘Groom,’ but ‘Grooming’: It’s Past Time to End Child Marriage (Like Aaliyah to R. Kelly) in the United States

There’s no romance in being a child bride. And whether the “groom” is R. Kelly, with his marriage to 15-year-old Aaliyah, your great-grandmother, or Justine (name changed for protection)—a minor married to a man twice her age in the state of Maryland—more often than not, these marriages are a form of child abuse … government-sanctioned child abuse, in some states.

Child marriage remains legal in well over half of all U.S. states, with over 300,000 minors married between 2000 and 2018. Every year, hundreds of children of every gender, ethnicity and religious background are married, with no regard for their consent. “Groom” might be the technical term in these marriages, but “grooming” is more accurate.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    16·
    4 hours ago

    I’ll never forget Ana, the high school student who desperately wanted to find help to avoid the threat of a forced marriage she was facing. She only had a few minutes to use a friend’s phone between classes, because she had no other way to communicate safely and confidentially. Our call ended abruptly, when a school official told her to get off the phone; I never heard from her again. To this day, I am haunted by the thought that she may have never gotten the help she so obviously needed and deserved.

    This is so fucked.