Brigitte Combs wipes away tears after speaking before Virginia lawmakers in favor of a bill to raise the minimum age of marriage. She married a much older man at age 15 and then ran away.
Brigitte Combs wipes away tears after speaking before Virginia lawmakers in favor of a bill to raise the minimum age of marriage. She married a much older man at age 15 and then ran away.
Brigitte Combs lives outside Richmond and said she came to the Virginia State Capitol when she heard lawmakers were discussing the issue of minors and forced marriage. Taking a deep breath, she told them that decades ago in Texas she had married a 37-year-old man at age 15.
“I couldn’t speak then. But I can now. And I will fight tooth and nail for others who cannot speak,” he said in late February.
Combs was able to escape his marriage at age 18, temporarily leaving two children behind, initially facing homelessness and eventually divorcing.
“Over time and meeting people, I found out more about this. And I found out that yes, this still exists,” Combs told NPR. “It’s happening in America. It wasn’t just me.”
Lawmakers passed a bill raising the minimum age of marriage to 18. It is currently pending action by Governor Glenn Youngkin. But advocates say this would make Virginia the 12th state to ban minors from marrying, which they say often leads to abuse.
The group finally unleashed It says that between 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 minors under the age of 18 were married in the US, the vast majority of whom are girls. She says about 60,000 of those marriages “occurred at an age or marital age difference that should have been considered a sex crime.” The organization, which offers legal aid and other services to people in forced marriages, is calling on Youngkin to sign the bill.
Naomi Cahn, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the movement to raise the age of marriage has gained ground over the past decade. She attributed this to advocacy and changing norms around pregnancy outside of marriage, which is often the motivation for teen marriage.
“Sexual activity, and at least pregnancy and marriage during adolescence, are generally disappearing as a social issue,” he said. “This is largely a state-by-state issue. Each state has its own laws in this area.”
Virginia Del. Karen Keys-Gamarra hugs Brigitte Combs after Combs spoke to lawmakers, who passed a bill raising the minimum age of marriage to 18. She is awaiting action from Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Virginia Del. Karen Keys-Gamarra hugs Brigitte Combs after Combs spoke to lawmakers, who passed a bill raising the minimum age of marriage to 18. She is awaiting action from Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Virginia currently allows 16-year-olds to marry, like most of the U.S., but only if a judge approves and emancipates the minor seeking marriage. That minimum age was established in 2016, which Cahn said was one of the first changes nationwide in raising the age of marriage. It was a compromise reached after a proposal to raise the age to 18 failed to gain enough support.
But Combs said that’s not enough protection.
“It didn’t matter if I was 15 or 17. Because my parents would have done, or made me do, whatever it took to get married,” she told lawmakers. “With all due respect, does anyone here really believe that a vulnerable young man out of fear of his parents or even God himself is going to protest?”
Delaware was the first state to set the minimum age at 18, in 2018. Washington was the most recent after Gov. Jay Inselee signed legislation this year.
Other states are considering raising the age. But a combination of objections has slowed the pace of change.
“It’s sometimes said that children run away from a bad home life with their parents, but then they run away from a bad home life for another bad home life,” said Lisa Sales, president of the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for Women. “Sometimes they are in love. But if they are really in love, then they can wait to get married to make sure that the love lasts and is a long-lasting love.”
Resistance also comes from different ideological viewpoints, said Casey Swegman of the Tahirih Justice Center, based in Falls Church, Virginia, which advocates for immigrant girls and raising the minimum age for marriage.
“There are some groups that see the right to marry as an individual freedom that minors already have.” Swegman said. “Emancipated minors are granted many rights, but not all. They are not allowed to vote. They are not allowed to buy cigarettes. They are not allowed to drink. There are still restrictions based on age, even for emancipated minors. And So why, shouldn’t marriage be one of those things?
But for the most part the opposition follows the line of those still concerned about the community stigma that comes with teen pregnancy.
In Virginia, a conservative religious organization, the Family Foundation argued that the current law has worked and that marriage should be an option for those who have become pregnant.
Combs strongly opposes any exemption from the proposed legislation, including pregnancy.
“One person is too many,” he said, “I’m just one person. Didn’t it matter?”
Jahd Khalil covers the Virginia Legislature for VPM News.
