GOP lawmaker says 12-year-olds are too young to be trans but old enough to marry

During a Missouri House of Representatives debate on Tuesday, an anti-trans state lawmaker proudly supported 12-year-olds getting married while supporting a bill banning trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care up to age 18 and forcibly detransition trans youth.

He even said that he knew a kid who got married at age 12 and happily informed his colleagues that she is still with her husband.

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Effectively, Missouri state Sen. Mike Moon (R) was arguing that a 12-year-old is too young to know what their gender is but not too young to enter into a marriage contract and a sexual relationship, even if it’s with an adult.

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During the debate, state Rep. Peter Meredith (D) asked state Sen. Moon about his support for H.B. 419 – the ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors – while he voted against a bill to raise the state’s minimum marriage age to 16 in 2018.

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“I’ve heard you talk about parents’ rights to raise their kids how they want,” Meredith said. “In fact, I just double-checked. You voted ‘no’ on making it illegal for kids to be married to adults at the age of 12.”

“If their parents consented to it, you said actually, that should be the law because it’s the parents’ right and the kid’s right to decide what’s best for them: to be raped by an adult.”

Moon asked Meredith if he knew anyone who got married at age 12. “I don’t need to,” Meredith responded.

“I do. And guess what? They’re still married,” Moon said smugly.

Meanwhile, in Missouri: State Senator Mike Moon is advocating for 12 year old kids to be married off to adults. pic.twitter.com/3aph23h7fT

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 12, 2023

The 2018 bill to raise the marriage age to 16 – which still allowed for some, but fewer, child marriages – ultimately passed without Moon’s support.

While conservatives have spent decades arguing that same-sex marriage will lead to child marriage as an attempt to associate LGBTQ+ people with child predators, it’s generally the more conservative lawmakers who oppose ending child marriage.

Child welfare advocates say that such laws help cover up and even legalize child sex abuse. For example, a 55-year-old man could get married to a 13-year-old girl and legally abuse her in a way that would be illegal if they didn’t get married.

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If this sounds far-fetched, it’s not. In fact, child marriages are legal in 44 U.S. states, and 20 states don’t require any minimum age for marriage with a parental or judicial waiver.

“Approximately 248,000 children were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2010,” Equality Now notes. “The vast majority were girls wed to adult men, many much older.”

“The fact that Missouri Senator Mike Moon said that 12-year-olds can be married off to adults just sickens me,” tweeted Jess Piper, executive director of Blue Missouri. “My daughter is nearly 11 and still plays with Barbies and her baby dolls.”

The fact that Missouri Senator Mike Moon said that 12 year olds can be married off to adults just sickens me. My daughter is nearly 11 and still plays with Barbies and her baby dolls. We are living in a hellscape in Missouri under a GOP supermajority.

— Jess Piper (@piper4missouri) April 12, 2023

In another tweet, she noted that over 7,000 teens under the age of 18 got married in her state from 2000 to 2014, and the vast majority were girls. One-third of the marriages involved men between the ages of 20 and 60.

“7,342 teens under eighteen were married in Missouri from 2000 to 2014. Eighty-five percent of them were girls. According to the research, 52 Missouri girls under fifteen were married in 2007. One-third of those marriages featured grooms in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.”