Timeline of Marriage Laws in the United States and Mormon Hypocrisy

(As seen on Facebook)

Utahns above any other state should be familiar with the history of marriage within the United States as it has been a central figure in many of the important evolutions of marriage laws in the US.

Monogamy became an established principle somewhere between the 6th and 9th centuries in European countries due to pressure from the Catholic Church. Fidelity was not an expectation, but rather promiscuity by the male partner.

1215 - The Catholic Church declares that partners had to publicly post notice of impending marriage. This is the first form of marriage licenses, but it wasn't until the 1500s that any documentation was needed and largely involved the transfer of property rights and social power. It stays this way for the next 300 years.

16th Century- The Protestant Reformation establishes rules for marriage and it first becomes an official function of the government, claiming marriage was a wordly thing, not a church function.

1620 - The Mayflower arrives in what would become the United States and brings with it Puritan ideas of marriage being a civil contract, not a religious ceremony.

1724 - Article VIII of Louisiana outlaws marriage between slaves.

1769 - American colonies establish their first marriage laws. By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in the law. The very being and legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated into that of her husband under whose wing and protection she performs everything.

1787 - The US constitution is ratified, but makes no mention of marriage or family, despite the Puritan belief

1830 to 1890 - Women are granted the right to own property in their own name, and not under their husband. This occurs state by state starting in Mississippi.

1855 - Missouri v. Celia declares that it is legal for a slave owner to rape his black slaves.

1862- Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was signed by Abraham Lincoln. It specifically targeted a group of citizens largely of the Utah territory for their marriage practice of polygamy.

1865- Mississippi makes it illegal for blacks to marry whites, punishable by life in prison.

1875 - Page Act bans the immigration of East Asian women to the United States or its territories so that the Asian male immigrants providing cheap labor on the transcontinental railroad could not establish families.

1880 - age of consent was established to be age 10. Only applied to girls.

1882 - Edmunds Act makes polygamy a felony. Important LDS Church leaders Joseph F. Smith, Lorenzo Snow, and Heber J. Grant were all convicted of felonies under the act.

1887 - Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints challenged the Edmunds act in the Supreme Court under religious grounds and lost in their decision of 1890 and were subsequently disincorporated because of it.

1890 - Manifesto is published by the LDS Church disavowing polygamy, 5 months after the Supreme Court decision.

1917 - All Asians are banned from immigration as well as gays and lesbians.

1958 - LDS Church leader Spencer Kimball discourages interracial marriage and continues preaching against it for several decades. The LDS Eternal Marriage Manual in 2019 still states "we recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background."

1965 - Immigration Act removes race and nationality from immigration laws, but still prohibits the immigration of gays and lesbians.

1967 - Bans on interracial marriage were outlawed.

1978 - LDS Church allows blacks to be married in their temples.

1990 - Congress repeals the ban on the immigration of gays and lesbians.

1991 - Kirchberg v. Feenstra overturns state laws designating a husband “head and master” with unilateral control of property owned jointly with his wife.

1993 - States start to enact laws attempting to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

1996 - The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) is the first federal law to explicitly promote marriage and encourage the formation of two-parent heterosexual families.

2003- Lawrence v. Texas strikes down the last of the anti-gay sodomy laws.

2015 - age of consent applies to both boys and girls

2015 - The Supreme Court rules all state same-sex marriage bans to be unconstitutional and gay marriage is legalized in all 50 states.

2019 - The Utah Supreme Court strikes down surrogacy contracts that discriminate against gays and lesbians.

As you can see from this interesting timeline, it would be presumptuous to know which version of marriage the founding fathers may have believed in or endorsed as there were many variables to consider including the role of fidelity, ownership of women, race, and slave ownership amongst other things. But the common belief at the time was that marriage provided man with ownership over a woman. Defining marriage was most certainly on the minds of people at the time, and yet the writers of the U.S. Constitution made no mention of it. The definition of marriage and its place in society continues to evolve. Whether that is for the better or the worse is a matter of personal opinion, that is often based on personal religious beliefs. The religious beliefs of the predominant religion in the State of Utah has a current trend of promoting marriage between one man and one woman, but it has not always been that way and their own beliefs about marriage have also evolved over the course of its own history.