File photo: California governor Gavin Newsom (Picture credit: AP)
Newsom signed the legislation on Wednesday alongside media personality and child marriage survivor Courtney Stodden, who was allowed by her parents to marry actor Doug Hutchison when she was 16 and he was 51. Brittany Bee, who told the BBC she was married at 17 after trying to escape an abusive home, said, “California has sent a clear message to the world today. Global Hope 365 said around 35,000 marriages involving minors took place in California between 2000 and 2021, with most involving an underage girl and an adult man, according to NBC Los Angeles. Advocacy group Unchained At Last estimated that about 9,000 girls were married each year in California and said almost all child marriages involved girls marrying adult men. Rima Nashashibi, founder and president of Global Hope 365 and founder of the California Coalition to End Child Marriage, said survivors had been central to the campaign for a ban.
Stodden, who has campaigned against child marriage, described the legislation as a “victory” and said she would continue campaigning until children were protected from marriage across all 50 states. “Governor Newsom’s action today made clear to me and to survivors of child marriage everywhere that we should never have been expected to carry this burden,” Stodden said, according to NBC Los Angeles. “This is a long overdue measure to protect young Californians and minors. Other survivors also welcomed the legislation. A message of hope for all children that they may be free from systemic violence. That they may choose their own path.
Today, California kids are safer than ever before,” Newsom said, according to NBC Los Angeles.