Conclusion

My thesis at the beginning of March was to show you that marriage has been redefined. I believe that since marriage has been changed in our national history that room for conservative groups to pledge that marriage is sacred is complete bull. I have talked about various topics in relation to this such as African Americans not being allowed to marry, interracial marriage (miscenegation) being illegal, and polygamy being legal then illegal and now back to being legal in some parts. I discussed the fact that common law marriage is still a process that is seen in some states yet illegal in others. I think it is important to recognize that changes to our laws will happen as our political and social climates change. I think it is valuable to see how we have grown and adjust our laws based on the various changes.

I think that the time is now to ratify same sex marriage as constitutional right because of the social and political climate.

Green Card Marriages

Green Card marriages or marriages in order to obtain a green card in the United States is on the rise. It is estimated that over 180,000 people enter the United States as a spouse of a United States citizen. Due to the difficulty involved in obtaining a green card here in the United States many people resort to this in order to obtain the possibility of citizenship.

Another dark twist to this story is that of Mail Order brides. Mail Order Brides are a bit of a taboo but this is a trend that is surprisingly growing. Many websites work as brokers that connect young beautiful women who want to come to America and find love with men who will take care of them and offer them modern comforts.


Below is a a reddit thread about mail order bride horror stories and success.

Reddit thread about mail order brides

Follow up on anti-bigamy

As we discussed polygamy and common law marriage it should be known that Utah is one of the states that practices common law marriage. In doing so one of the explicit laws in Utah is that one cannot cohabitate with another person outside of there marriage. Knowledge about these key issues is pertinent into understanding why the sister wives case was key into "legalizing" polygamy. As of August 2014 Utah it is only legal to have multiple marriages as long as there is no more than one marriage is issued to a person.

In the link below there is a video describing the key events as well as documents directly from the judges decision.


Fox article explaining all the details.

Common Law Marriage

Common Law marriage is of great dispute here in the United States.

In some states you can be legally married under common law marriage if you did not apply for a marriage license or had a ceremony performed. It allows you to have the same rights as a traditional married couple without going through the process of filling out the required paperwork. This is interesting to note that in 8 states in the United States common law marriage is still legal.

In most of these states all you have to do is be over the age of 18 call each other husband and wife for a set number of years and there you are. You are happily married.

In some states common law marriages are not recognized. I think it is interesting that in some states you can be married and other's you would not be considered married.

I think that in not creating a national requirement for marriage creates an opportunity for different organizations to deny marriage rights based on the fact that that specific marriage is not legal in that particular state. I think it is valuable to the nation in that all states and most things each citizen interacts with every day is funded via federal funds. I think that with common law marriage there needs to be either a common ground because each of the 8 states listed above have different requirements for the act of marriage.

More on polygamy!

So to read more on Polygamy I have this wonderful book you can read if you have time.

It's a little dated and it is actually from 1979 but I think it's a great read into polygamy in America as it relates to the Mormon Church.

The Polygamy Story

Polygamy's roots in America!

What religions pop in your mind when you think about polygamy?

Islam?

Buddhism?

Hinduism?

Pagans?

What about Mormonism?

The Church of Latter-Day Saints, also known as Mormonism, is a church that began in 1831 in New York when founder Joseph Smith had revelations that lead to the founding of the LDS Church.

At the beginning of his religion he believed that persons who were commanded to should take more than one wife. As the climate within the United States began to change in 1852 with the new LDS leader Brigham Young. Brigham Young continued to discuss plural marriage or polygamy with great criticism from the American public. As states began to make plural marriages illegal many Mormons moved out west to areas known now as California, Utah and New Mexico or were forced to live there lives in secrecy.

In 1878 the United States supreme court decision in Reynolds V United States stated that although the practice of plural marriage was part of the LDS church it was not a protected under the constitution.

By 1890 President Woodruff made a public condemnation of the Mormon church and the participation of plural marriage. This is also around the time that the United States was considering letting Utah become a state in the United States. In order to attain statehood, Utah needed to abandon their fundamentalist Mormon upbringing. In order to do that the church developed into condemning one of the core beliefs in plural marriage and by 1910 began excommunicating members who entered into new plural marriages.

Now there are approximately 37,000 fundamentalists members of the Latter-Day Saints church. There are less than half of that number that actually practice plural marriage.

Remember that show sister wives?

Polygamy is deeply ingrained in United States history and within many religions.
In the United States it is currently illegal to obtain multiple marriages at once. An interesting case of late was the Sister Wives television show which documented the lives of a Mormon family in which multiple females were "married" to the same man. They did not obtain marriage licenses for all the marriages but lived in the same home and raised their children together.

What was interesting is that the federal judge found that they were in there rights to live as such as long as they did not apply for multiple marriage licenses.



Link hear to an article about the case.

In a few days I will post more about polygamy's deep roots in American History, specifically the histories of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and the Mormon Churches involvement as it pertains to our nations history.

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time if you were a single women that was the only way you had rights to property. If you married you were giving up all of your land, free will and more.

This article talks about the rights women had in 1776 until the 19th century

In the 19th century a new trend was coming about. Women were living with women and establishing lives with these other women. This is now known as Boston Marriages. This is one of the first instances in which lesbian women held homes and businesses together and lived together in what would be considered today as a common law marriage.

Some even shared headstones together. Although legally speaking they were not married on paper they were in a common law marriage in which they each shared each others assets. These women were pillars within their community and it was not uncommon.

The article below discusses Charity and Sylvia a female couple during these times and the researcher that discovered their records.


Boston Globe Article about Boston Marriages and Vermont marriages

Slave marriage

Pre-civil war many slaves were not allowed to marry one another. Their relationships were not legally recognized because they were not seen as people. This video talks about the journey of slaves towards gaining equality in the arena that is marriage.

world history of marriage in a video :)

Marriage the movie.

On April 10th 1967 the United States Supreme Court began looking at the case Loving v. Virginia.
This landmark case featuring Mildred and Richard Perry was the the final nail in the coffin for miscegenation laws.

What are miscegenation laws?

Miscegenation laws were laws that prevented the mixing of races, either through interracial marriage or reproduction.

In almost states miscegenation was once illegal. The change in morality up to and after the civil war allowed people to decide whether or not this was morally okay.

I personally am glad that this is no longer illegal because many of my friends and family exist in interracial relationships.

The fact that the thought of interracial couples was morally repulsive and is now the norm is an important facet to recognizing marriage norms are constantly changing.


In the article below it talks about Mildred and Richard Perry and the percentage of interracial couples almost 50 years after they got married.

Nbc article talking about the amount of interracial marriages

Earlier last week I learned about positive laws and natural laws in the judicial system in regards to the Dred Scott decision.

Positive laws are laws that are enacted by governments and can be changed.

For example women may walk around topless in New York City.

Natural laws are laws that cannot be changed and to many are laws of higher power.

For example people are free to believe in whatever religion they would like to. You can try and force your religion on someone but not everyone will believe in that religion or change their beliefs because you ask them to,

Many people argue that marriage is a positive law that it can change. Many laws are archaic and don't change in accordance with technology or change in moral climate at the time.

Many more people argue that marriage is a natural law where it is dictated by the laws of god, allah, and so many more demigods and deities.

So what does this have to do with today?

Today it was published in the New York Times that the GOP is having a difficult time deciding whether or not to fight gay marriage and what that strategy is going to be in the upcoming 2016 elections.

Click here for link to the New York Times article!

I feel like in our modern time this is a prime example of why marriage is fluid and that the construct of marriage in our country will forever be changing.

Hello,

My name is Jasmine and during Spring 2015 semester I will be using this blog to discuss the topic of Marriage in the United States. I shall cover different pieces like the development of Marriage law and it's place in our world today. I will discuss topics like slaves rights to marry, gay marriage, and marriage for immigration.

I hope to show that throughout the history of the United States marriage has been consistently redefined and that marriage should be accessible to those of sound body and mind.

I hope this blog serves the purpose of being informative and interesting to those who read it.

Strict guidelines for comments are to be respectful to the commenters, limit vulgarity, and to always assume positive intent before posting.

-Jasmine