Woman says best thing about marriage to first cousin is no in-laws

The British newspaper Metro had an article on October 9th about a cousin couple planning to marry in Colorado:

The bride-to-be, who wants only to be known as Erin, revealed an unusual benefit of marrying close relative Richard, and said he is the most considerate partner she has ever had.

Erin, whose father was Richard’s mother’s brother, is going to marry her fiancé near their home in Colorado next August.

The digital artist moved in with Richard, in Autumn 2018 after her first marriage ended in 2017, with the couple getting engaged earlier this year.

Erin’s home state is one of the few in the United States where marriages between first cousins are legal.

As first cousins, Erin and Richard still have some relatives that they don't share like his father and her mother.  There is a big age gap between them, but she is still young enough to have a baby and they are trying to conceive.  I hope they have taken a genetic carrier test.  I think they should have waited until marriage before having sex. I can't tell if they reached the level of adultery which I cannot support, but it sounds like her marriage was already ending before they reconnected and that the marriage was over before she moved in with him.

But then it started to make me really uncomfortable and nervous because things got really intimate and sexual, so I just stopped talking to him for a few years, and even blocked him on Facebook.

She restarted contacted after her marriage began to fail later the same year, and says that initially she only wanted help with a place to stay.

There seems to be a discrepancy in the dates and I'm not sure if that's due to the writer or Erin.  If Richard really contacted her in 2017, then "a few years" have not passed yet.

UPDATE: On February 6, 2020, The Sun had an article about this couple:

A WOMAN who’s spoken out about falling in love with her first cousin, who is nearly twice her age, says she plans to marry him and have his babies.

Monica VanHoek, 35, she confided in Paul Derschan, 55, a construction company manager, when she looked for family support and comfort after a failed marriage — and the couple fell in love.

Oddly, their names are different in this article.  Compare the pictures in both articles and they are wearing the same glasses and are the same ages.  Either this entire relationship is a hoax or they are using fake names to protect their identity.

In Defense of Cousins Who Fall in Love

On June 18, Mallika Rao wrote an article for Vulture, a pop culture website run by New York magazine.  She talks about the Hulu show Ramy which is about a Muslim in New Jersey who is attracted to his cousin.  Rao also talks about a real wedding she attended between first cousins that her father had encouraged, and also she took her own first cousin as a guest.

I watched this scene on a recent trip to my childhood home, after which my father unwound what sounded like the plot of a slightly off Nicholas Sparks movie: the story of a woman who visited her brother’s house regularly after her husband died too soon. Her young son got to know his first cousin during those visits and, eventually, the two first cousins married each other. My father spoke in a way meant to open my mind, it seemed. He needn’t have tried so hard. I wasn’t gagging at the thought. But I got why he assumed I might: The rightness of marriage between cousins constitutes one of the most quietly heated debates on the planet.

Can Kissing Cousins Wed in the US?

Voice of America, a government-funded multimedia agency, had an article on May 7 about cousin marriage:

A seven-year Columbia University study published in 2018 found that children whose parents are first cousins have a 4% to 7% probability of birth defects, compared with 3% to 4% when the parents are distant relatives who marry.

From 1650 to 1850, the average person was fourth cousins with their spouse, according to the study. By 1950, the average person was married to their seventh cousin. The researchers believe that today, many couples are 10th to 12th cousins.

The data on consanguineous marriage in the U.S. is "scant and incomplete," according to Bittles. CousinCouples.com, a website for people who are romantically involved with their cousin, estimates that about one out of every 1,000 U.S. marriages is between first cousins.

However, Bittles finds that number to be unrealistically low.

Focus on the Family endorses cousin marriage

On March 23, 2009, Dr. Helen had a post on her blog about how teenage boys are punished much more harshly for consensual sex than are teenage girls.

Rob Fedders responded on the 25th and said:

Basically, they are saying they are “merged into one” and one cannot sue oneself. They are upholding the Biblical view of marriage, aren’t they? Again, marriage is intended to be a religious institution, not a government one. (You used to only, and in fact still can, get married on a family Bible, and it holds up without the State license, apparently – or so I’ve read.

While doing a Google search for - married on a family Bible - to see if his statement was true, I found an advice column from Focus on the Family.  I couldn't find the date of the article, but it points out that the Bible allows for cousin marriage.  That search brought up several other links about cousins and it makes me wonder if there are a lot of people wondering if the Bible permits cousin marriage.

Cousins in love petition to be able to marry in Utah

On March 6th, ABC4 had an article about cousin marriage:

They are crossing two big hurdles to get married; the most obvious is genetics. According to researchers at Columbia University, first cousins share 12.5 percent of their DNA. First cousins who have children face a 4-7 percent chance of their child having a genetic disorder as opposed to a 3-4 percent chance for an average couple.

The second major hurdle is the law. In Utah, it’s illegal for first cousins to get married unless they are 65 years old, 55 if they can prove they are infertile.

But there is no such law in Colorado, so the two went there Monday to tie the knot.

I recommend two DNA tests for cousin couples: one for genealogy to confirm that they are actually related, and the second is a test for recessive genes that could passed on to your children.  I have done both types.  I had 3 recessive genes, but none of them seemed too serious.  I really wish they had sued for the right to marry.  If I was involved with a cousin, I'd want to sue.  There is a lot of historical justification for cousin marriage and I would love for the Supreme Court to address another case about whether the States can define marriage.  I think they made a huge mistake in the 2015 ruling and it would be nice to get back to the text of the Constitution.

UPDATE: On January 8, 2020, the New York Post had an article about this couple:

Michael Lee and Angela Peang can hardly wait for the birth of their first child — even if it results in them spending time behind bars.

The husband and wife from Eagle Mountain, Utah, are first cousins: Peang’s father is the older brother of Lee’s mother.

Since the baby’s existence proves they had sex, they could face up to $10,000 in fines and five years in prison, because intercourse between cousins is illegal in their home state, due to the long-held fear of birth defects.

Their petition now has 1,719 signatures.