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Comment by sippingabonedry | Hacker News Reader

I hate to upend your "lulz red states" Reddit zinger, but the fact is the law doesn't take effect until January 2027, so until such time there is NO age limit in California.

The limit is 16 in Colorado and Illinois, 15 in Hawaii, and no limit in New Mexico.

Might want to update your notes.

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It wasn't mean to be a "lol red state" thing, for instance, California law still allows first cousins to marry. What in tarnation.

Yikes.

Bizarrely, the map for cousin marriage is roughly the inverse of the age map, with it being permitted on most of the East coast, CA, CO, NM, AK, & HI.

I have a personal theory that making first or second cousin marriage illegal would result in a great deal of complaining and likely legal challenges from certain groups that they're being discriminated against on the basis of racial/ethnic origin. Take a look at a global map of the percentage prevalence of first-cousin marriage.

I say this having discussed the phenomenon with friends who immigrated from Pakistan and all of whom have met first-cousin married couples that had one or more children with birth defects or mental disabilities that could very well have been the result of it.

If you immigrate to the US, there is an expectation you leave any barbaric (by American standards) practices home.

For example, dog meat is still legal in South Korea (until 2027), but trying that here would not be acceptable nor would any reasonable person think it's discrimination.

In case you're curious. The ten states with the highest rate of child marriage per capita between 2000 and 2021 were:

  * Nevada
  * Idaho
  * Utah
  * Kentucky
  * Wyoming
  * West Virginia
  * Alabama
  * Mississippi
  * Tennessee
  * Texas

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