Querian
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Washington
This is for a story I am writing.
Reasoning aside, a boy of 12 and a girl of 17 want to get married, parents of both parties are giving consent, the year is 1975. They reside in WA, USA, but can travel to any other state or country if the state of Washington is not able to legally marry them.
- How can they marry?
- When can they marry?
- Does anything change legally when the girl turns 18 and the kid is still 12?
Thank you.
Maybe you can point me in the right direction? Where do I find a person knowledgeable in these things?
Google didn't really yield anything useful on the subject.
Do I contact U.S. Department of Justice?
My thoughts exactly. I do not need it to be 100% historically accurate. I can write whatever I want as long as it seems reasonable. However, an educated guess from someone with at least basic knowledge of U.S. legal system would still provide a helpful guideline, so here I am, asking.
Right you are. But if a part of an effort of your research brings you to a forum where you think there may be experts, why not ask?
Ah, I see. Thank you for clearing that up!
Yes! Very good idea. Thank you so much for the tip! Most useful lead so far.
You see, if the protagonist is born and raised in Latvia in that timeline, it would mean that he is in Soviet Union, and that changes a lot of things in terms of his worldview and freedoms, makes it impossible for him to manifest his destiny. So I need him to be born in US in order for him to become who I need him to be.
Also, it is unfortunate, but I don't think I can get much use out of the links you are offering, since I am looking for the Marriageable Age, not Age of Consent, and certainly not laws on sexual practices.
As for your dissatisfaction with foreign laws, well, I agree, the world is not a perfect place today, it never was. Hopefully it wouldn't take us more than a few more centuries to balance everything out, create full equality, fairness, morality, safety for everyone, worldwide. Neither you or me will live to see that day, Super Moderator, but we can still play our small parts today, help make the world marginally better, be it by giving legal advice to other people on a form, or writing a story that inspires the reader to be a better person.
Definitely. Thank you for your input.
For the record, today's standards in US (may vary by state):
A) Marriageable Age - usually 18
B) Marriageable Age with consent of parents - which may be as low as 12
C) exceptions to Marriageable Age with consent of parents - which may go even lower with approval of the Supreme Court, on a case by case basis.
Technically it is possible to marry the kids in my story. And to be clear, this was known to me long before I made my first post. I was merely hoping to find a person on this forum that had implicit knowledge on these things, someone who was a lawyer or a judge in the 70s, who could give accurate data from that timeline or an informed opinion. It was a long shot anyway...
Thank you everyone for your help.
Thank you adjusterjack, very good advice, I haven't thought of that.
Reasoning aside, a boy of 12 and a girl of 17 want to get married, parents of both parties are giving consent, the year is 1975. They reside in WA, USA, but can travel to any other state or country if the state of Washington is not able to legally marry them.
- How can they marry?
- When can they marry?
- Does anything change legally when the girl turns 18 and the kid is still 12?
Thank you.
Maybe you can point me in the right direction? Where do I find a person knowledgeable in these things?
Google didn't really yield anything useful on the subject.
Do I contact U.S. Department of Justice?
My thoughts exactly. I do not need it to be 100% historically accurate. I can write whatever I want as long as it seems reasonable. However, an educated guess from someone with at least basic knowledge of U.S. legal system would still provide a helpful guideline, so here I am, asking.
Don't be ridiculous.If you are going to be a writer, you need to learn to research and where. You want someone to do your research, you can pay them.
Right you are. But if a part of an effort of your research brings you to a forum where you think there may be experts, why not ask?
Ah, I see. Thank you for clearing that up!
Yes! Very good idea. Thank you so much for the tip! Most useful lead so far.
You see, if the protagonist is born and raised in Latvia in that timeline, it would mean that he is in Soviet Union, and that changes a lot of things in terms of his worldview and freedoms, makes it impossible for him to manifest his destiny. So I need him to be born in US in order for him to become who I need him to be.
Also, it is unfortunate, but I don't think I can get much use out of the links you are offering, since I am looking for the Marriageable Age, not Age of Consent, and certainly not laws on sexual practices.
As for your dissatisfaction with foreign laws, well, I agree, the world is not a perfect place today, it never was. Hopefully it wouldn't take us more than a few more centuries to balance everything out, create full equality, fairness, morality, safety for everyone, worldwide. Neither you or me will live to see that day, Super Moderator, but we can still play our small parts today, help make the world marginally better, be it by giving legal advice to other people on a form, or writing a story that inspires the reader to be a better person.
Definitely. Thank you for your input.
For the record, today's standards in US (may vary by state):
A) Marriageable Age - usually 18
B) Marriageable Age with consent of parents - which may be as low as 12
C) exceptions to Marriageable Age with consent of parents - which may go even lower with approval of the Supreme Court, on a case by case basis.
Technically it is possible to marry the kids in my story. And to be clear, this was known to me long before I made my first post. I was merely hoping to find a person on this forum that had implicit knowledge on these things, someone who was a lawyer or a judge in the 70s, who could give accurate data from that timeline or an informed opinion. It was a long shot anyway...
Thank you everyone for your help.
Thank you adjusterjack, very good advice, I haven't thought of that.
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