HomeMy WebLinkAboutCorrespondence - #29 Orozco, Norma
From: Rima Nashashibi <rima@globalhope365.org>
Sent: Monday, May 02, 2022 8:37 AM
To: !City Clerk
Cc: Sarmiento, Vicente; pbecerra@santa-ana.org; Phan, Thai; Penaloza, David; Lopez,
Jessie; Hernandez, Johnathan; Mendoza, Nelida
Subject: Resolution #29 on Consent Calendar, calling upon our California Legislators to
introduce and pass a bill that would end child marriage in California and I urge you to
go one step further
Dear City Clerk, Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tern Bacerra, Councilmembers Mendoza, Hernandez,
Lopez, Penaloza, and Phan:
I am the founder and president of Global Hope 365, a 501 c3 nonprofit in Orange County. Our goal is
to end harmful practices against women and girls such as child marriage, human trafficking, and other
forms of gender-based violence right here in the U.S.
I applaud council members Mendoza, Lopez, and Phan for introducing the resolution on the agenda,
as part of the consent calendar for the vote tomorrow. We grateful for them opting to take the
initiative to protect the children of this great city, county, and state.
As you know there have been 300,000 minors married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018 mostly
young girls married to adult men and 23,588 in CA. 60,000 of the 300,000 would have been
considered a sex crime (statutory rape) because of the age differential. In CA not only is child
marriage legal but there is no minimum age. All you need is parental consent and judicial approval.
According to all the child marriage survivors we work with, parental approval is parental coercion.
50% of them were coerced by their parents to cover the crime of statutory rape. We also made history
in CA by launching the CA Coalition to end child marriage on 9/14/2019.
Our resolution calling to "end child marriage under 18, no exceptions" passed unanimously in 12
cities. 11/34 Orange County cities and Culver City. Irvine (8/11/2020), Anaheim (8/25/2020), Newport
Beach (10/13/2020), Yorba Linda (11/3/2020), Fullerton (11/17/2020), Mission Viejo (2/9/2021 , 4/5),
Costa Mesa (3/2/2021), Culver City (5/10/2021), Tustin (5/18/2021), Laguna Beach (8/10/2021, 4/5),
Huntington Beach (9/7/2021), and Buena Park (3/8/2022, 4/5)
1 respectfully request a vote in support of resolution #29 on the consent calendar calling upon our
California Legislators to introduce and pass a bill that would end child marriage in California
and I urge you to go one step further namely:
To change Section 1 of Resolution #29 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.
Thank you very much for your time and attention to this appeal in support of this critical issue to
protect our children.
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Rima Nashashibi
President
Global Hope 365
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On Sun, May 1, 2022 at 6:57 PM Luis Ortiz-Franco <ortizfranco@gmail.com>wrote:
Dear City Clerk, Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem, Councilmembers Mendoza, Hernandez, Lopez, Penaloza,
and Phan:
I am a resident of the City of Orange, and I am a member of Los Amigos of Orange County, the Villa Park
Rotary Club and the League of Women voters. I respectfully request that you respond to the moral imperative
of ending child marriage in Santa Ana and in the state of California by voting to support Resolution#29
calling upon our California Legislators to introduce and pass a bill that would end child marriage in
California.
I also urge you to change Section 1 of Resolution 929 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.
Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request in support of this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Dr. Luis Ortiz-Franco
Virus-free. www.avast.com
2
3
Orozco, Norma
From: Elizabeth Sitton <elizabethsitton@outlook.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2022 9:10 PM
To: !City Clerk; Sarmiento, Vicente; Bacerra, Phil; Phan, Thai; Penaloza, David; Lopez, Jessie;
Hernandez, Johnathan; Mendoza, Nelida
Cc: Elizabeth Sitton
Subject: Letter in support of Resolution #29 re: Ending Child Marriage
Attachments: Elizabeth Sitton for Santa Ana and Resolution Against Child Marriage.pdf
Dear Santa Ana City Clerk, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tern and Councilmembers,
I have attached a letter 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 have included personal testimony about this issue and would appreciate your reviewing it prior to voting on the
resolution.
Kind regards,
Elizabeth Sitton, M.S.
i
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
Orozco, Norma
From: Luis Ortiz-Franco <ortizfranco@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 01, 2022 6:57 PM
To: Sarmiento, Vicente; pbecerra@santa-ana.org; Phan, Thai; Penaloza, David; Lopez,
Jessie; Hernandez, Johnathan; Mendoza, Nelida; !City Clerk; Rima Nashashibi; Richard
Ramirez; morenojo@sbcglobal.net; vito; Luis Ortiz-Franco
Subject: Resolution #29
Dear City Clerk, Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem, Councilmembers Mendoza, Hernandez, Lopez, Penaloza,
and Phan:
I am a resident of the City of Orange, and I am a member of Los Amigos of Orange County, the Villa Park
Rotary Club and the League of Women voters. I respectfully request that you respond to the moral imperative
of ending child marriage in Santa Ana and in the state of California by voting to support Resolution 429 calling
upon our California Legislators to introduce and pass a bill that would end child marriage in California.
I also urge you to change Section l of Resolution 929 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.
Thank you very much for your time and attention to this request in support of this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Dr. Luis Ortiz-Franco
Virus-free. www.avast.com
1
Orozco, Norma
From: Dawn Tyree <upondawnwriting@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2022 5:19 PM
To: !City Clerk; Sarmiento, Vicente; Bacerra, Phil; Phan, Thai; Penaloza, David; Lopez, Jessie;
Hernandez, Johnathan; Mendoza, Nelida
Subject: In support of resolution #29 To End Child Marriage
My name is Dawn Tyree and I am a survivor of child marriage.
was 13-years-old when I was forced to marry my 32-year-old abuser. He had been sexually abusing
me for two years. When I became pregnant, my stepmother first tried to terminate my pregnancy -
nearly killing me and my unborn son. When that failed, my family insisted that marriage was in our
best interest, and the trusted adults in my life coerced me into marriage.
I had no rights over my body. Not one adult ever talked to me about birth control, and 13 months after my son
was born, I gave birth to my second child. I was a mother of two at age 15. Research shows that married teens
are 40% more likely than unmarried teens to have a second child within 24 months of marriage.
At 16-years-old and with two toddlers in tow,we escaped the marriage. Homeless and with no support, I tried to
go to a shelter. The women's shelter turned us away because as minors, we presented the shelter with a liability.
Family Services told me to go back to my parents because they were responsible for me. But my parents had
disowned me for leaving the marriage. My husband had reported me as a runaway and law enforcement
threatened to return me to my rapist. I couldn't even rent a hotel room. How was I to think about working or
going to school? Who would help me with child care? We lived below the poverty line for over a decade,
sometimes going without the essentials such as toilet paper or shampoo. We often lived without electricity. My
greatest fear was that my children would be taken away because of the way we lived.
When a child tries to leave a marriage, the decisions often favor the older spouse. In my divorce decree, I was
allowed to have physical custody of the children, but I was never awarded any child support. The court also
allowed my ex-husband unsupervised visits with my children, ignoring my concerns of physical and emotional
abuse. My only option for safety was to break the order and save us from his abuse. I had to flee from the state
of California.
The ripple effect of child marriage has been devastating. My adult children struggle to survive and support their
families. Mental illness, addiction, and poverty all repeat through more generations. We do a grave disservice
by allowing minors to marry. Marriage is a decision that should be between two consenting adults. The
standards of responsibility for marriage should reflect the same standards we have in place for things such as
voting, entering contracts, or serving our country. You must be 21 years old to buy tobacco in America, yet a
child can marry.
This issue is important because the trauma of child marriage didn't end after the divorce. This trauma is
generational and unless we raise the minimum age for marriage to 18, we are creating a perpetual loop of abuse
and trauma for generations to come. Research by organizations fighting to end child marriage has revealed that
most child marriages are a cover-up for statutory rape and child sex abuse. Almost 80% of these marriages end
in divorce.
i
In the context of human rights in other countries, the U.S. State Department has called marriage before 18 a
"human rights abuse"that"produces devastating repercussions for a girl's life, effectively ending her
childhood."Yet in the United States, child marriage is legal and sanctioned in 44 of the 50 states. Studies show
that girls who do not marry when they become pregnant are more likely to focus on their futures, while girls
that do marry face dropping out of school.
am calling upon our state legislators to introduce and pass a bill that will *end* child marriage. I urge
you to use language that draws a hard line in the sand, 18 with no exceptions.
Respectfully,
Dawn Tyree
DAWN TYREE is a writer, an activist, and a founding member of
the National Coalition to End Child Marriage in the United
States. Her story has been told in an A&E documentary and published
in over twelve languages.
htips://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/01/14/child-marriage-
activism/
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