Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are proposing legislation that's meant to
be hateful towards gay people.
They want to establish common law marriage as being between one man and one woman.
But what's interesting about their proposal is that it does away with any age
requirements associated with marriage.
Just a few years ago, we covered a story about all these red states that
allowed adults to marry literal minors, people under the age of 18.
And it turns out that Tennessee was one of the states that finally did something
about it, this was a few years ago.
But now this proposal coming from Republican state lawmakers indicates that
their common law marriage can only be defined as between one man and one woman.
And if you're a 16 year old girl who's dealing with sexual misconduct or
sexual abuse from an adult, they'd be able to marry you with no problem,
again, because of the way this legislation is written.
So the bill's sponsor, Tom Leatherwood,
said the law being considered would add a new marriage option for Tennesseans.
All this bill does is give an alternative form of marriage its how goofy
these people are.
Alternative form of marriage for those pastors and other individuals who
have a conscientious objection to the current pathway to marriage in our law.
Missing from the bill though, are age requirements,
opening the door for possible child marriages, something the bill's
sponsor acknowledged during a child and family affairs subcommittee.
There is not an explicit age limit, Leatherwood said.
So, look, lawmakers are sometimes stupid, okay,
they'll write legislation, you gotta be super careful because the way you
write it might have certain loopholes that allow for bad behavior.
So when I was initially reading about this story,
researching this story, I thought to myself, I mean,
they just outlawed child marriage a few years ago, that this must be a mistake.
Maybe they forgot to include some sort of provision that made it abundantly clear
that they don't allow child marriage.
No, no Leatherwood's like, yeah, yeah I mean,
there's no age requirement, not a problem.
He says this, so one person actually did speak out
against it before we get to more from Leatherwood.
So, state representative Mike Stewart,
who is a Democrat from Nashville says it's basically a get out of jail free card for
people who are basically committing statutory rape.
I mean, it's completely ridiculous.
So that's another reason why this terrible bill should be eliminated.
So, again, two massive reasons why, number one, the whole point is to be anti-gay.
Number two, it allows for child marriage and the sponsor,
the person who wrote the legislation knows it and has no problem with it.
By the way, according to UNICEF, approximately 300,000 girls and
boys in the United States were married before reaching 18 years old between
2000 and 2018.
Under current Tennessee law, one can get married as young as 17 years old,
but you'd have to do that with parental consent.
In 2000, by the way, the state issued 1,256
marriage licenses to 16 and 17 year olds,
including 1,094 to 16 and 17 year old girls.
In those cases the oldest groom was 26 years old.
So Leatherwood, real good guy, real ethical, good Christian,
he just wants to go back to the days where 16 year olds were married or
forced into marriage to 26 year old adults.
>> Or by the way, 12 year olds or 8 year olds.
The law doesn't.
>> That's true.
>> Any limit at all.
So now guys, this is really important,
he was given an opportunity to correct that mistake if it was a mistake, and
apparently he doesn't think it's a mistake.
Cuz he didn't correct it and acknowledges it, not gonna correct it.
So he thinks four year olds can get married in Tennessee, that's the kind
of monster he is, four year olds, babies, are you gonna marry babies?
I don't know, they are Republican monsters, QAnon,
you've got the wrong party.
So I understand that in the old days,
people in different areas got married at younger ages, I understand that.
I understand the historical context and that included the south,
the south constantly was marrying younger girls, very young girls,
girls, we consider to be very underage now.
That was a tradition in the south filled with right wingers, okay?
But we don't accept that anymore unless I don't know, maybe QAnon and
the on the Republican Party are gonna say we're just kidding,
we love it when older men marry or have sex with younger girls.
Cuz that's not our policy, we hate that policy.
That is the republican policy in Tennessee.
So are you against it or are you for it?
I don't know you tell me.
QAnon do you believe anything that you say forget the reality, forget the real world,
but the things that you guys claim,
here it is, it's happening in Tennessee up and at them get in action, nope.
So you never meant it.
All the Republics, Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about how Romney,
Murkowski and Collins are pro pedophilia because they voted for Judge Jackson.
Well, Marjorie Taylor Greene, you're not speaking out about
the legalized pedophilia that Tennessee republicans wanna do so
I guess that makes you pro pedophilia.
So look it's not my policy, it's your policy.
So what are you gonna do about it?
Look on the issue of gay marriage, that's obvious,
anyone who doesn't realize that republicans are against gay Americans
having the same rights as straight Americans is either obviously lying.
Dave Rubin or just doesn't know anything and
just wandered out of the woods like doesn't understand.
It's the Republican Party that is passing laws against the LGBTQ community every
single day, including I don't think it should be allowed to get married.
I don't think they should have the same rights as straight Americans.
So by the way, you're all those problems who believe that it's okay, you wantna
live in a theocracy and you wanna go back to the medieval ages and all that.
I get it, it's fine, it's your right.
I believe in freedom of speech.
It's a free country, let's vote, let's see how it turns out.
But you don't get to say you're American, America is for equality.
They didn't say accept gay people in the constitution.
You should read the constitution.
I know you never have and you never will cuz you bathed in your ignorance.
But every time you strike out against the gay community, you're saying,
I hate America.
I don't believe in the idea of equality.
And now though, if you really don't even have to get to it, I mean,
look at that 300,000 babies married off in the last 20 years or so, in this country.
Underage kids married off in mass QAnon, in mass,
300,000 of them and the Republicans say, Yes.
So who's a pro pedophilia party cuz right now the facts clearly indicate it's
the Republican.