[MtBaldy]

Another thread speculates on what the lib agenda will be after legalizing and normalizing gay marriage will be. One strong contender is lowering the age of consent drastically and legitimizing pedophilia. Expect to see more stories like this.

[JRandomFreeper]

My first ex-wife's grandmother was 13 when she got married on a North Texas prarie.

Some of this is cultural. Some of it is biological. Now it's about laws.

/johnny

[KoRn]

When my parents got married, my mother was 16, and my father was 21 after returning from Vietnam. Would he and my grandparents get charged with a crime if it were today?

[yank in the UK]

I remember when I was 16, and my girlfriend (now wife of 12 years) just turned 18, and she was frightened at the possibility of being done for statutory rape. It really is a dumb law. Instead of having an age of consent there should be a law on the age gap.

[OrangeHoof]

I thought the underlying liberal principal is “kids are going to do it anyway so let’s just give them a free condom or a free abortion.”

You mean there are laws against this??? < /sarc >

[Bobalu]

Mother nature is always right.

Man in his infinite folly sometimes seeks to legislate against mother nature.

It is liberals who seek to enact controls upon mother nature (God by another name)

[MacMattico]

As my husband would bluntly say, most 21 year old guys want one thing, and most 15 year old girls aren't prepared for the consequences. I would agree except to say if we're talking a pregnancy here, it's the male that must face the consequences as well, and a 15 year old girl is not ready for a baby and many of the same parents that say it's ok for my 15 year old to have sex with a 21 year old would probably give the girl a ride to the abortion clinic.

[cva66snipe]

I have aunts who were married by age 15. Yes their husbands were older by a few years. A marriage between a 15 year old and a man 21 was not that uncommon for the generations born during WW2 and before.

As a parent I would not condone their behavior. I would not allow it with my knowledge. But OTOH if their urge to merge as some call it is so strong then let them marry. In Tennessee a 16 year old is considered a medical adult. They can even obtain an abortion without parents consent or knowledge.

[Campion]

I don't understand why everyone on this thread is talking about their 15-year-old great-grandmother getting married to a 20-year-old man.

These two weren't married. They were permitted, if not invited, to have a shack-up relationship in her parents house. For those of you who think only of the bottom line and think morality is nonsense, if the girl gets pregnant and the guy leaves her (quite common), who do you think pays for their child? You do.

Even secular conservatives ought to favor marriages and intact families. That's the bulwark against government control over everything. We can start by not drawing an equivalence between a 15-year-old shacking up with a 21-year-old, and marriage between any male and female, regardless of their ages.

[liberalh8ter]

My Aunt and Uncle were married when he was 32 and she was 16. They had the blessing of all family members and went onto have a wonderful loving, marriage. Although he passed away while she was still young and she remarried, it was always understood by her second husband that my Uncle was the love if her life. Her second husband was welcomed into our family, lovingly and he often spoke highly of my Uncle he'd never met. He is now buried in our family plot, next to my Uncle!

Politicians can't make better decisions than loving parents can.

[Joe 6-pack]

Kevin Jennings would probably be ok with the age difference, but he might object to the heterosexuality of it all....

[BenLurkin]

"He seems like a good guy,"

He isn't.

[trailhkr1]

My friend was 15 when he started dating a 21 year old woman. Now 11 years later they are married. As another poster mentioned they were both terrified she would get charged with statuary rape and kept things discrete.

[NormsRevenge]

Lock the whole family away and toss the key..

[cva66snipe]

The part DCS Tennessee won't say is this. Had the person been a live in boyfriend of the mother it would not be as serious too them as this. If the 15 year olds divorced from mom stays a week say with her dad who is involved in a bi-racial affair with another woman and lets the 15 year old sleep in bed with them that in the eyes of Tennessee DCS would also be OK. That is a cultural thing you see.

The ages of the girl and man in question were within the normal relm of what society a generation ago accepted as old enough for a marriage with an age space about normal between the couple.

They were stupid IMO {the parents} to allow what was going on in their home outside of marriage. In other words they should have told them OK if you insist on this then we insist on a license and a commitment to each other. Believe me the DCS is far more Liberal than even the girls parents. But they will use this as a case where they go all out. In the mean time true molesters and true abusers have a reunification plan written by DCS.