Thread

California bans child marriage, a practice still legal in 32 US states

83 points · 136 comments · dabinat

GeekyBear · 1790826103 · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
1. john_strinlai · 1790826457 · focus · HN ↗
  >but old enough to decide that they want to have sex change surgery.
  an under-18 can not unilaterally decide to get sex change surgery in california.
  1. GeekyBear · 1790827512 · focus · HN ↗
    How about puberty blockers?
    Should people who are still legally defined as children be allowed to make a decision on those?
    john_strinlai · 1790827674 · focus · HN ↗
    >How about puberty blockers?
    an under-18 can not unilaterally decide to go on puberty blockers either.
    GeekyBear · 1790828654 · focus · HN ↗
    If a parent can't give consent for marriage, they shouldn't be able to consent to gender-affirming care, right?
    > The California Department of Health Care Services, a branch of Newsom’s administration, said Friday that state dollars will be used to reimburse providers of gender-affirming care for youth covered by Medi-Cal, the state version of Medicaid...
    Gender-affirming care includes medical treatments that help align a person’s physical characteristics with their gender identity. Care typically begins with therapy and may progress to puberty-blocking medicine and hormone treatments, and in rare cases for adolescents, surgeries.
    <a href="https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/09/29/california-to-fund-gender-affirming-care-for-trans-youth-on-medi-cal/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2026/09/29/california-to-fund-...
    john_strinlai · 1790829156 · focus · HN ↗
    >If a parent can't give consent for marriage, they shouldn't be able to consent to gender-affirming care, right?
    my comment was about you incorrectly saying minors can "decide that they want to have sex change surgery" (later changed to puberty blockers), which they cannot just decide to do.
    GeekyBear · 1790961299 · focus · HN ↗
    You introduced the word "unilaterally" as a strawman argument.
    If a minor can get a sex change with parental consent they should also be allowed to marry with parental consent.
    zzrrt · 1790829874 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm not fully on-board with trans ideas, but here's a stab at an argument: Marriage is not, I don't know, "romance-affirming care." That's the difference. It is not considered critical to a young person's identity to be married, while gender-affirming care is.
2. stackghost · 1790826588 · focus · HN ↗
  > states like California decide that those under 18 are too young to make a decision on marriage, but old enough to decide that they want to have sex change surgery.
  I don’t think this is factually accurate.
  Sex-reassignment surgery (or whatever we are calling it these days) requires parental consent in California if the person seeking it is a minor.
  1. GeekyBear · 1790826990 · focus · HN ↗
    > Sex-reassignment surgery (or whatever we are calling it these days) requires parental consent in California if the person seeking it is a minor.
    So why shouldn't you be allowed to get married with parental consent in the same state?
    I'm OK with a state deciding it either way, but I'm looking for a little consistency.
    slg · 1790827586 · focus · HN ↗
    >I'm OK with a state deciding it either way, but I'm looking for a little consistency.
    If that's your true intent, what specific problem do you have with this surgery? If it's not with this specific surgery, what other types of surgery do you think we should ban for minors "for a little consistency"?
    sippingabonedry · 1790827980 · focus · HN ↗
    You can always divorce someone or otherwise dissolve the marriage.
    It's hard to reattach body parts once they've been removed.
    One is permanently life-altering, while the other amounts to paperwork.
    slg · 1790829042 · focus · HN ↗
    Did you respond to the right comment? Because this isn't relevant to what I said. I wasn't being rhetorical. I was asking specifically where people think the line should be. Which surgeries should be allowed for minors and which shouldn't? Should we permit cheiloplasty? How about rhinoplasty?
    I was responding to someone "looking for a little consistency", so I'm asking some questions in that same spirit.
    wallst07 · 1790849643 · focus · HN ↗
    These are all good questions and also supporting OPs claims of consistency.
    For a minor:
    Is Marriage a want or a need, same with cosmetic surgery, or gender changes.
    stackghost · 1790828620 · focus · HN ↗
    >So why shouldn't you be allowed to get married with parental consent in the same state?
    >I'm OK with a state deciding it either way, but I'm looking for a little consistency.
    I'm not Californian, but in most democracies things default to "legal" until there's explicitly a law passed against it, or if a broad concept is already illegal then edge cases default to "illegal" until a specific exemption law is passed. In general, parental consent is required for all medical procedures performed on a minor, so I would hazard a guess that:
    a) sex reassignment surgery on a minor falls under the broader category of "medical procedures you have to get parental consent for"
    b) somebody was sufficiently bothered by the previous state of affairs with regards to minors getting married and the potential for harm[0] that they passed a law against it, but no such explicit ban has been passed for minors seeking sex reassignment surgery (yet?).
    To me that seems wholly consistent with basic common sense, plus laws are notorious for lagging behind the times.
    >I'm OK with a state deciding it either way, but I'm looking for a little consistency.
    Why is consistency (parental consent vs not) in this matter this so important to you?
    [0] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49917494">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49917494
    dabinat · 1790835613 · focus · HN ↗
    Because if they’re marrying someone older that person legally becomes their guardian and there is a massive power imbalance. Marriages with minors often involve abuse because it’s difficult for the minor to leave a legal bond to their guardian.
    Gender-reassignment surgery is more self-contained as it only involves one person.
    wallst07 · 1790849514 · focus · HN ↗
    On the flip side, you can get the marriage annulled in 1 day or divorced in a year.
    Surgery is a little bit harder to rollback. There is still a power imbalance if you don't assume the parent is acting with best intentions.

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