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Georgia, Where Gays Can't Wed But Children Can
by Greg Bluestein, Associated Press
(Atlanta, Georgia) Ever since her 13-year-old niece wed a 14-year-old boy last year, Sharon Cline has sent lawmakers a slew of letters begging them to change a Georgia law that allows children of any age to marry -- and without parental consent -- as long as the bride-to-be is pregnant.
"Some of the lawmakers just didn't believe this could happen," said Cline, who lives in Weston, Fla. "It was very frustrating."
They're believers now.
Lisa Lynnette Clark, 37, was charged last week in Gainesville with child molestation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old friend of her teenage son. Just days before her arrest, she wed the boy under a Georgia law that allows pregnant couples to marry regardless of age and without consent.
Disturbed by the child groom, Georgia lawmakers may soon debate changing a law that many didn't know even existed. Geared toward preventing out-of-wedlock births, the law dates back to at least the early 1960s.
"I never knew it was in the code until this morning," Jerry Keen, the state's House Majority Leader, said Tuesday. "Our legislative counsel -- the lawyers who draft the laws -- even had to look it up."
Still, Keen and other leaders in the Republican-controlled Legislature stopped short of endorsing a change to the state's marital requirements.
"It's very difficult to govern by exception. You have to govern by rule," said Keen, who is from St. Simons.
Instead, Keen and Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams said the state's GOP lawmakers will focus on passing stricter penalties for those convicted of child molestation. Keen said the legislation would require convicts to spend at least 25 years in prison and wear an electronic tracking device within the state's borders after their release.
Democratic lawmakers, recently in the minority after more than a century in power, may hope a proposal to change the marriage standards will drive a wedge in the GOP majority.
State Rep. Karla Drenner of Avondale Estates said she plans to author a bill that would bar children under age 16 to marry regardless of the circumstances or at least require parental consent.
As the only openly gay elected official in Georgia's state government, Drenner said the irony of the lax marriage standards for minors is not lost upon her -- particularly a year after lawmakers passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
"We're protecting society from the perceived threat of homosexual marriage, which was already illegal," she said. "But yet if you're pregnant, you can get married -- and it doesn't matter if you're 9 years old or 10 years old."
Meanwhile, Daniel Sammons, Clark's court-appointed attorney, said he will likely use the marriage as a shield to prevent the boy from testifying against Clark.
Sammons said his defense is also bolstered by a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that restricted prosecutors from using a wife's taped statement to police to try to undermine her husband at a trial. The ruling, he said, will make it difficult for prosecutors to rely on a witness statement that the boy gave detectives.
Even before Clark's arrest grabbed national headlines, the state's law was last month lampooned on the TV sitcom "George Lopez." In the episode, the title character's daughter threatened to elope in Georgia because her parents didn't approve of her boyfriend.
Cline sent every Georgia lawmaker a transcript of the scene to remind them that her family's case is not an isolated incident and does not reflect kindly on the state.
"I hope someone starts listening to these stories," Cline said. "I hope they don't think it's a one-time thing. It's happening enough to where the law needs be changed."
©365Gay.com 2005
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Hang on.
A child can marry if one of the pair is pregnant. But that is evidence of under age sex. So what happens if the older is an adult?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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they are still legally married but the older pays the price for his/her dipping into the wellspring of youth (so to speak).
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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But the older has by definition abused the younger? So why are they not prosecuted like they woudl be if no-one were pregnant?
And what about a quick divorce?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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I didn't write the laws there..... I have no idea other than it reduces the quantity of bastards there.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Pregnant Bride Remains in Jail
By WXIA-TV
HALL COUNTY, GA -- A pregnant 37-year-old woman remained in jail Wednesday night, but her 15-year-old husband may be released Thursday after a court hearing.
The groom’s grandmother shed a little more light on the situation regarding her grandson and Lisa Lynette Clark.
The grandmother, Judy Hales, says that Clark initiated the affair with her grandson and claimed that she didn’t know he was 14 at the time they started the affair.
No one has come forward to bail Clark out of jail, where she remains on a $10,000 bond, even though she allegedly has relatives in the area.
“I thought she was a really, really good person. She was good with the kids, but little did I know what was lurking in the background,” said Hales.
Clark worked from her home doing medical computer work. She often picked up Hales’ grandson for outings with her teenaged boys.
“We might have talked 15, 20, maybe 30 minutes. It was usually about the kids and working and just general living,” said Hales.
Clark is now accused of molesting the 15-year-old boy in a year-long affair. Hales says she learned of the relationship and the pregnancy in early October.
“She said ‘It was not me that went after him. He come after me,'” Hales said. “I said, ‘A 14-year-old boy come after you, and you didn’t put him in the car and bring him home or call me to come pick him up?’ I said, ‘You have got to be one of the stupidest, dumbest people on this planet. I’m not even calling you people. You don’t even qualify. I can’t even call you road-kill, because people feel sorry for an animal out on the road. And I’ve got no sorrow for you, you’re below road-kill.'”
Hales also criticized the Hall County Sheriff’s Department for waiting a month to arrest Clark.
“Had she been arrested sooner, she wouldn’t have had time to go get that birth certificate and marry my grandson, and we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she said.
The Hall County Sheriff’s Department says that child molestation cases involve much in the way of technical forensic work, and say it wasn’t something they could do overnight. They say it took about four weeks to make that arrest in the case.
The 15-year-old boy, who has been in juvenile detention for the past week on a probation violation charge relating to missing school when he went off to get married, may be freed to go back home with his grandmother Thursday.
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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Teen says relationship with friend's mother was consensual
GAINESVILLE- The 15-year-old boy who wed the 37-year-old mother of one of his friends said the relationship was consensual and he's in love with her.
"She didn't seduce me or anything like that," the boy told Atlanta television station WGCL today from a juvenile detention center north of Atlanta where he was held on an unrelated charge. "She's done a lot for me, you know. She's been good to me."
The boy added he had no regrets about his relationship with the woman, who has said she is pregnant with his child.
Authorities have charged Lisa Lynnette Clark with child molestation. She was arrested the day after she married the boy in the driveway of a retired probate judge's home Nov. 8.
The two were wed under a Georgia law that allows a pregnant couple to marry regardless of age and without consent.
Judy Hayles, the boy's grandmother and legal guardian, has said Clark seduced the boy, and she is trying to get the marriage annulled.
Legal restrictions on testimony from a spouse will be invoked by Daniel Sammons, Clark's attorney, to keep the boy from having to testify against Clark.
Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder
(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... as is made clear by the original article, the fact that the parties are legally married may well be used to prevent the boy from testifying and to suppress the use of any statement he may already have made. In those circumstances, the prosecution may find themselves in real difficulty. The law follows precedent, regardless of what might appear to be common sense - and a lot of innocent people have reason to be grateful that it does so.
I guess that where the law works to the advantage of the innocent majority, we just have to accept the inevitability that the odd guilty individual may escape unpunished.
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Re: Related to the topic of "Age of Consent"....... 
