ROLL TIDE!
1 Like
A lot of states allow it, surprisingly. Many of them do have specific restrictions, (“beyond child-bearing age,” medically-diagnosed infertility, etc.) but it’s legal in more states than people realize.
5 Likes
Yeah but cousin-marrying isn’t a such a burning issue in most places that the Google algorithm returns it as a top search result for “marriage + (location)”.
7 Likes
You know… that’s an excellent point
4 Likes
I don’t get the plurality vote. There are only two choices correct? Unless ‘I don’t know’ is also a choice.
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics. The problem is it’s very hard to know what statistics actually mean without actually studying statistics.
Unsure or did not answer.
I think that probably reflects the prejudice of people from outside Alabama more than it reflects the common customs of Alabama. A bunch of people from California are laughing about Alabamians marrying their cousins when it’s perfectly legal to do so in California as well.
7 Likes
It is suspect. I live in a populous area where nearly everyone I know attends church, except my small band of atheists who stay home and do yard work.
2 Likes
Cosanguineous marriages are frowned on in the West, but in parts of Asia and Africa it is a respectable practice that accounts for between 20-50% of all marriages.
The increased risk of children of first cousins inheriting autosomal recessive conditions is about 2.5%. In families where there is a known incidence of genetically heritable disease, the increased risk might be twice as high.
All of which is to say that as long as you are not the Hapsburgs, cosanguineous marraige may not be the worst thing you could do. You would have to decide whether a 2.5% elevated risk of birth defect is acceptable for you.
Since I never liked my cousins much and I married across the race line, my kid is totally outbred and this has never been an issue for me. But for those of you who do like your cousins, here is a link to a very useful NIH paper on the subject.
2 Likes
An isolated consanguineous marriage, yes, but many such marriages over a lineage increases that risk exponentially. Or at least, that was my impression.
4 Likes
Moderation in all things, including marrying your cousins.
10 Likes
And with Hapsburgs (and other European royalty), the problem was compounded by the small pool of acceptable partners even apart from the cousin thing. If you alternate between marrying your cousin in one generation, and then marrying someone completely unrelated to your family in the next, that’s not too bad. But the royal bloodlines became a tangled mess, where all the ruling families were marrying into each others’ lines, so…
4 Likes
The Founders Effect as a result of voluntary isolation.
“No man is an island” unless you’re a Hapsburg.
2 Likes
Well I would’ve guessed the same thing about Mississippi, but marrying cousins wasn’t among the top search results for “marriage + Mississippi.” In fact I was surprised to learn that the state of Mississippi requires both parties to be 21 years of age to obtain a marriage license.
2 Likes
Europe too.
1 Like
No. We have a supremacy clause in the constitution for a reason - so that states can’t trample on the civil rights of their citizens. Not every gay person that lives there (or black person or liberal person, etc) can or wants to leave. Just because they live their doesn’t mean the majority should be able to discriminate against them. Over and above the ethical and moral reasons for this, it’s just flat out unconstitutional.
10 Likes
And yet these are also states where child brides are not only legal, but considered somehow part of their "values
One of them tried to elect a child molester to the Senate. FTS.
5 Likes
Not to be a pedant, but its the 14th Amendment which keeps states from trampling civil rights. Plus the idea that people should look elsewhere because bigotry has color of law is just a nice way of saying “segregation”. It is unacceptable anywhere.
So I wholeheartedly agree with you, trying to change the laws in places like Alabama is absolutely necessary for the protection of all citizens of this nation. .
6 Likes
I recommend that everyone live for 6-9 months in Alabama, as I once did. You will never again be surprised by any article about how f@#$ing backwards and 50-years-behind-the-times the residents of that state are. I swear to god it was like hopping into a time machine.
2 Likes
2 Likes
Alabama should not be cast out as irredeemable. There is Muscle Shoals.
2 Likes
