United States | News & Politics

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The Florida bill to ban marrying a first cousin failed to pass in the Florida Senate.

State lawmakers voted down HB-733, which proposed that “incestuous marriages” would not be recognized for any purpose in the state of Florida after July 1, 2026.

The bill had proposed that a man “may not marry any woman to whom he is related by lineal consanguinity, nor his sister, nor his aunt, nor his niece,” while a woman cannot marry a man “whom she is related by lineal consanguinity, nor her brother, nor her uncle, nor her nephew.”

State Representative Dean Black told Florida’s Action News Jax that he expects another vote on the same issue sometime in the future.

“There are plenty of people here, and there are plenty of people you can find to be your lifelong partner without looking to your first cousin,” Black said.

Florida is one of more than a dozen states where marrying your first cousin is legal, but most of the United States has banned such marriages.