Parent Sues New York State For the Right to Marry Their Own Child

Brittany M. Hughes | April 14, 2021
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One New York parent is suing the state over its incest laws in an effort to legally marry their own biological child, in what might be one of the creepiest stories I’ve ever written.

The parent, whose identity and gender has been withheld, reportedly filed the anonymous lawsuit asserting that “individual autonomy” gave the parent-child couple the moral right to marry.

“Through the enduring bond of marriage, two persons, whatever relationship they might otherwise have with one another, can find a greater level of expression, intimacy and spirituality,” the parent argued, according to the Washington Examiner.

Related: Cambridge Becomes Second Massachusetts Town to Recognize Polyamorous Groups As Families

The lawsuit, which states both participants in the relationship are consenting adults, apparently also claims the parent and child are unable to have biological children of their own in an attempt to negate the procreative aspect of laws against incest, claiming that the couple’s inability to have kids means they “can aspire to the transcendent purposes of marriage and seek fulfillment in its highest meaning.”

The Examiner points out that under New York law, incest is a third-degree felony that carries up to four years in prison.

But while incest might still be wildly taboo and downright disgusting in the eyes of the vast majority of society, legal pushes to recognize non-traditional couples and family structures is becoming far more common. Two towns in Massachusetts have already legalized polyamorous groups - defined as three or more adults engaged in a consensual relationship with each other - as legitimate and legally recognized families. In California, a trio comprised of three men gained fame and even penned a book after the state granted all three "dads" the legal right to be listed as their adopted children's parents on the kids' birth certificates.

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