a WTF moment

[acroyear]

Md. delegate seeks ban on first-cousin marriage - wtop.com:

A Maryland delegate says it's time for his state to ban marriages between first cousins, unless both people are over 65 or if one party is unable to reproduce.

Delegate Henry Heller, D-Montgomery County, says he wants to bring Maryland "into the enlightened world of other states such as West Virginia and Arkansas" that already prohibit unions of first cousins.

Heller, a retired special education administrator, says when first cousins marry they are "playing genetic roulette" because of the increased odds of having a child with birth defects.

He says he has "no problem," however, with seniors or infertile people marrying a first cousin.

Heller says if they want companionship, he's not against that.

There are 24 states that prohibit marriage between first-cousins.

Ok, NOWHERE in my background, training, and experience did it ever occur to me that someone could ever use the phrase the enlightened world of other states such as West Virginia and Arkansas with a straight face.

Comments

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

I just shared this article with my co-workers and there has never been so robust and healthy a group laugh as was just now experienced.

The concern now is, that if this legislation goes through, Vermont may start getting some ideas... *sigh*

(And I'm allowed to make fun of Vermont because I hail from a particularly rural portion of that state, a component where there aren't so much family trees as family telephone poles if you get my drift.)

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

Paddle faster! I hear banjo music!

[thewhitedragon.livejournal.com]

Yew gotta purty mouth.

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Actually, I learned in high school during a production of "Guys and Dolls" that the city of Elkton up near the DE border was a veritable quickie marriage factory of the northeast US because MD didn't require the obligatory blood test (to determine that you weren't marrying your first cousin).

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

I would have figured he would have been from Washington or Allegheny county with a comment like that. I wouldn't think that first cousin marriages were all that common in Monkey County.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

Apparently this isn't the first time. He sponsored a similar bill 10 years ago.

http://mlis.state.md.us/2000rs/billfile/hb0459.htm

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

actually, we got married in MD both for the convenience of its recognition of universal life (that is, so that we didn't have to pay some dumb court clerk to make it feel like we were just eloping - we could pay kmusser dinner instead :) ), and as a bit of protest against VA's heritage of blood test rules (which I didn't realize had been repealed since i last heard anything about it).

[rmblktty.livejournal.com]

I was in college at Radford when I found out it was legal to marry your first cousin in Virginia. I was out shopping with some friends when we heard some people talking about a wedding they just went to. The wedding was between 2 first cousins, and last I knew, it was still legal to marry your first cousin in VA. SOOOOOO weird. I honestly didnt think you could. At the time, it was legal in WVA to marry your first cousin too. Granted, this was 15 years ago...so plenty could change. Welcome to rural southwestern VA.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

I thought the blood test rule was for syphilis as it's been around a lot longer than DNA testing.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

First-cousin marriage has been illegal in WV since the 1910s.

Here's a map showing when such laws were enacted throughout the US.

Map clicky

[rmblktty.livejournal.com]

Well they must have been coming over the state line into VA to get married. I know some people from college who have cousins born and bred in WVA and live there with their spouses, that married first cousins. LOL. TOOOO Funny.

Thanks for the map...that is cool. :-) WHo would have figured VA was more liberal than WVA on marriage?