Correspondence - #29 - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 1, 2022 Dear Distinguished Council Members of Buena Park, I am a survivor of child marriage in Southern California. I am writing in support of Resolution #29 on the consent calendar, "Calling Upon Our State Legislators to Introduce and Pass a Bill that Would End Child Marriage". I urge you to change section 1 in the be it resolved section to read: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Santa Ana, that: Section 1. The City of Santa Ana calls upon our state legislators to introduce and pass a bill that would end child marriage under 18, no exceptions in California. I would like to share my personal story with you that has compelled me to advocate for an end to child marriage. I was forced to marry a 28-year-old stranger at the age of 16 by my mother and stepfather who were the founders and leaders of a religious cult. There was not one person that I encountered in this process that asked me a question about whether I was willfully marrying this man. Even if a judge had been involved, I was living in such fear in that I would not have told them that I was not willfully marrying. This was due to my having nowhere to escape to as I had been legally adopted years earlier by my stepfather. My mother abandoned my safety and pushed me into the marriage, and my father, who was not in the cult, no longer had any legal rights or knew that this was happening to me. Once married I was taken overseas with my new husband where my passport was taken from me. This trip lasted 2.5 years and it wasn't until I returned home that I was able to escape by having a car delivered with a key on the tire. I was 19 by then and had been pulled out of school in eighth grade and home schooled for a year before passing the High School Equivalency Exam and put into a life of servitude to cook, clean and care for the younger children. I was not prepared for living in the outside world and had to find my way through the goodness of a couple that I had met briefly, who happened to live in Orange County. My childhood was taken from me as a result of being married off as a sixteen-year-old. I have struggled to build the life that I have today. I still carry the scars on my psyche from these events however and have tried to work through the pain they have caused me in regular therapy sessions, but my frequent nightmares persist. Today, I am a professional working in the health care industry and can attest personally and professionally to the extreme damage underage marriage creates. The age of consent must be 18. 1 am grateful for the opportunity to stand up for the defenseless children who are forced or coerced into marriage and hope that you will support or sponsor legislation to lead the way in ending child marriage in California. Anything younger than 18 years old is equivalent to child trafficking and is human rights abuse. As we know, child marriage destroys the health, education and economic opportunities open to girls and significantly increases the risk of them experiencing violence. It has been classified by the Hague as a war crime and yet it continues in the United States. Sincerely, Elizabeth Sitton, Culver City, California