7 mo. ago • 98%

Tennessee legislature passes bill banning marriage between first cousins

www.theguardian.com Tennessee legislature passes bill banning marriage between first cousins

Proposal sails through, with one vocal opponent saying gay first cousins do not risk having a child with birth defects

Proposal sails through, with one vocal opponent saying gay first cousins do not risk having a child with birth defects

Archived version: https://archive.ph/Ri2sc

30 comments

I love how the pic for the article is, presumably, a lesbian couple…

Yep, all those hot & steamy incestuous lesbians in Tennessee are about to riot.

26
- Well the bill originally had an exception for all the supposed lesbien cousins. The governor or someone got to get all upset and strike part of the bill. Then go on talk about how bad the gays cousins were for wanting the exception.
  
  4
- I think I saw a documentary film about one of those couples.
  
  2
Welcome to the 20th century

11
- You do know it's legal in many other states? Including loads of liberal states? Or were you just taking a dig on Tennessee?
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage_law_in_the_United_States
  
  7
  
  Mostly the latter. I like shitting on stereotypes.
  
  It is worth noting that I myself belong to a stereotype in this regard: I'm trash talking a state I've never been to, so feel free to reciprocate the shitting.
  
  5
I just want to say that I love the gay first cousins argument. It makes sense in a fucked up way, I guess you could make a bill forcing first cousins to be sterilized if they want to marry and get the same end result.

8
I can't see how two consenting adults wanting to marry is an issue. Sure, having biological kids born out of incest should be criminalized as that comes under child abuse (going ahead with a pregnancy where the probability of the child having to suffer a birth defect is very high.).

Let's say I want to marry my first cousin. Both of us are 22 and 24. We are both adults. Why should society get to decide what we can and cannot do? If you say "love is love" and support this bill, you are a hypocrite.

7
- So, accidental pregnancy between consenting adults that took precautions occurs. Is the state requiring a choice between abortion or jail? Just for the woman, or for both? What if the couple disagree on abortion? Still jail for both, or just one?
  
  7
  
  Hmm, interesting problem where I don't exactly have a good answer. But I would still support some form of criminalisation. If I fed my 3 year old cocaine while knowing it was cocaine, should I not be jailed for abuse? Is this situation not similar?
  
  2
- having biological kids born out of incest should be criminalized as that comes under child abuse
  
  It's the same as any other situation where a couple has known genetic traits that make birth defects much more likely. Why should it be criminalized if the parents are related, but not when the parents are unrelated, even though the outcome for the child is the same?
  
  5
  
  I'm not very confident in answering this, but this is my answer- Knowing that ur kid will have genetic defects is very easy if you know that your partner is your sibling, no? To know the other genetic traits, you would have to consciously conduct genetic tests n stuff. But not so much for incest.
  
  2
- I can’t tell if this is serious or not
  
  4
  
  I am being dead serious. Memes aside, we need to question the logic behind every single thing that we believe in. That is exactly what I am attempting to do. I would encourage you to do the same :)
  
  11
  
  This is Rudy Guliannis alt account
  
  -1
- I tend to agree. There’s only minor biological issues with marrying a cousin, around a 3% increase in birth defects if my quick google is correct. It’s only a cascading problem like people expect when it happens over and over in the same family tree… (or should I say family stick?)
  
  4
  
  Interesting.
  
  Direct family incestuous offspring seems to have a 50% chance of having genetics disorders.
  
  The stuff for first cousins is even more interesting!
  
  In April 2002, the Journal of Genetic Counseling released a report which estimated the average risk of birth defects in a child born of first cousins at 1.1–2.0 percentage points above the average base risk for non-cousin couples of 3%, or about the same as that of any woman over age 40.[218] In terms of mortality, a 1994 study found a mean excess pre-reproductive mortality rate of 4.4%,[219] while another study published in 2009 suggests the rate may be closer to 3.5%.[2] Put differently, a single first-cousin marriage entails a similar increased risk of birth defects and mortality as a woman faces when she gives birth at age 41 rather than at 30.[220]
  
  The above is from Wikipedia.
  
  So basically, banning incestuous childbirth for first cousins is equivalent to banning women from having children when above 41 years old.
  
  12
Better late than never

-3
- A couple cousin fuckers were mad about this, apparently.
  
  -1

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