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Florida bill to ban marrying first cousins fails to pass (thehill.com)

submitted 1 week ago by seahorse@midwest.social to c/usa@midwest.social

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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.

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[–] sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago

I'll shit on Florida as much as the next person, because...well, I'm just a hateful person on the internet I guess. That aside, the story is about Florida, but it's not a very Florida-specific issue:

States where it is fully legal to marry your cousin:

Alabama
Alaska
California
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Maryland
Massachussetts
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina (except for double-first cousins)
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Vermont
Virginia
Washington DC

States where you can marry your cousin under certain conditions:

Arizona (both over 65, or one person infertile)
Illinois (both over 50, or one person infertile)
Indiana (both over 65)
Maine (both same sex, or had genetic counseling)
Minnesota (only native peoples)
Utah (both over 65, or both over 55 and one person infertile)
Wisconsin (woman is over 55, or one person infertile)

-Source