Hellitz Villegas, the Forced Marriage Initiative Program Manager at the Tahirih Justice Center, wrote this op-ed in support of Virginia bill HB 994 ending child marriage in Virginia by setting […]

Today, Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill that ends child marriage in the state of Washington by raising the legal age for marriage to 18 without exceptions. This significant step marks a historical moment for Washington as it becomes the first state on the West Coast and the 11th  state in the country to end child marriage.  

Imagine being forced to marry as a child, having your innocence, dreams, goals, aspirations, and your entire childhood taken from you. Between 2000 and 2018, this was the harsh reality for over 300,000 minors married in the United States, and most of these cases involved girls marrying adult men, some decades older. Since 2016, a nationwide movement has emerged, leading to reforms in 34 states that either limit or end child marriage.

Today, Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz signed a bill that ends child marriage in Connecticut by raising the legal age for marriage to 18 without exceptions. This makes Connecticut the 9th state to completely end child marriage and the second state to end child marriage this year, after Vermont.

Connecticut saw over 1,200 children marry between 2000 and 2014, and prior to 2017 had no minimum marriage age. They are now the second state to succeed in an incremental approach to ending child marriage: a 2017 reform setting an age floor of 16 and ensuring universal judicial review cut rates of child marriage in the state by about half, mitigating harm while advocates and legislators continued building support for an end to child marriage this year.

D.C. has not yet joined the 31 states that have passed laws taking aim at child marriage and our laws still allow 16- and 17-year-olds to marry with nothing more than one parent’s signature. It’s time for our city to update our antiquated marriage laws and put the wellbeing of our children first.

Tahirih applauds the Maine legislators who have shown their commitment to addressing child marriage in the state for multiple years, and we look forward to supporting continued efforts to end child marriage in Maine. 

Tahirih’s policy work is rooted in our core values and in our promise theory of change. We work to advance policies and laws that enable immigrant survivors of gender-based violence to purse legal immigration status, live in safety, and fore their own paths.

The Tahirih Justice Center is prioritizing the following policy goals to immediately improve protections for immigrant survivors with simultaneously seeking long-term, systemic change.