Folks are so ancious to vote yes or no on this subject.
Here in Ohio, folks voted yes that marriage is for one man and one woman. What they failed to do was to read the fine print, and the powers that be were hopeing they would not.
What that law has done was to take many rights away from married folks. Of the many changes it has made, The biggest reason why I voted against it was that the new law took away the couple’s right to a common law marriage.
I have friends who have ‘jumped over the broom stick’ or have had other open forum marriage ceremonies. Some of these men and women are christian, but in all the cases they just don’t want to give the government the money to officially state with a certificate for the wall what they already knew as the truth.
Believe me, Civil marriage and a proper marriage before God ARE two different things. The state’s reaction to one such marriage of one of my friends is a great example. My friend’s husband passed away last November. Now that common law marriage doesn’t exist in this state, she has to fight a corporation to simply keep her house long enough to raise their two kids in. After they are grown, she doesn’t care if the corporation takes the whole thing and bulldozes it. She has enough in the bank to survive, but she would not be able to afford an apartment AND to feed the kids till they are 18. I applaud here and agree with her that her presence in the home while they are in elementary though H.S. is much more important to their upbringing.
Also, Before this Marriage is for One man and One woman law, Karen and Greg’s marriage was legal even to the point that Greg’s insurance covered the children’s medical expenses. Now the medical insurance also has been withdrawn on the review because the kids were not ‘proven’ to be Greg’s.
I tell y’all this because you need to be careful what you are so quickly reacting to. This law too will take many rights away from those folks who are already in common law relationships. It isn’t easy digging up the cash to give to a government entity in exchange for a worthless piece of paper for the wall. It is SILLY to think they should.
Don’t be so reactive
No vote by the people or legislation by the state can make invalid a marriage by common-law which was entered into prior to the vote or the law being created. The law can prevent any more common-law marriages from being entered into within their state BUT they cannot refuse to “recognize” a common-law marriage if it was created in a state that has not by statute, outlawed such marriages.
All states must recognize the public acts and laws of its sister states and this is according to Article 4 of the US Constitution which says:
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“Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.”*
Your friend needs to contact an attorney who works in family law within your state. If Ohio code did not forbid the creation of common-law marriages and your friend and her husband entered into one, then all she has to do is show the state that her marriage existed by presenting tax forms, mortgage papers, children’s school records showing Mr. and Mrs., a driver’s license with the same last name, joint savings accounts or other such items that would show they held themselves in public as man and wife. She can even have family and friends sign affidavits stating they knew the couple to be married. Once this is provided to the state then the state must prove the marriage did not exist.
Contrary to folklore, you need not live together for a specified amount of time but in fact can marry each other by acts of public behavior or even by saying the words to each other and then acting on those words and promises.
The right to be married existed long before the state did and the state does not like that so they injected themselves as the third party to marriage in many states. Marriages exist between a man and a woman without need of a license. Churches should be free to marry a couple without having to jump through state-spun hoops but unfortunately, we have taken what belongs to a man, his wife and God and given the authority to a lower power, another man in the form of a state.
Common-law marriages are 100% as legal as a civil marriage or a state-licensed church wedding but for some reason which I have never understood, the myths around them are great.
And with the right information provided to church officials, a common-law marriage can become sacramental in the Catholic Church.
) it is a blue state that has very liberal leanings. I am truthfully concerned about this November vote.