{"id":212987,"date":"2026-03-31T13:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/212987\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T13:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T13:07:09","slug":"ron-desantis-addresses-first-cousin-marriages-which-are-still-legal-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/212987\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis addresses first-cousin marriages, which are still legal in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As of now, it&#8217;s legal to marry your aunt or uncle&#8217;s kid in Florida.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Gov.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/flgov.com\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Ron DeSantis<\/a> is turning his attention to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RonDeSantis\/status\/2038751429817503948\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">first-cousin nuptials<\/a>, commenting for the first time on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/733\/ByCategory\/?Tab=Analyses\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">HB 733<\/a>, a wide-ranging Department of Health (DOH) bill that would have stopped Florida from recognizing marriages between first cousins after July 1.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cFor some reason the ban on cousin marriages was dropped during the legislative process,\u201d he posted to X.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">DeSantis did not comment on the bill during the Legislative Session that ended earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Disputes during floor sessions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/florida\/2026\/03\/19\/florida-lawmakers-fail-to-ban-first-cousins-from-marrying\/#:~:text=%5BBELOW:%20Disturbing%20discoveries%20at%20Sanford,first%20cousins%20to%20that%20list.\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">involved a lot of other issues<\/a> within the bill, including medical marijuana, neonatal nutrition, and best practices for dental hygienists. The House and Senate could not find common ground.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Given that this was DeSantis\u2019 last Legislative Session, the only way he could effect change would be to add a bill to a Special Session call.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.verramobility.com\/floridasafezones\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-735581 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/25-VM-004-FlaPol-Ads_728x90.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Legislators are already committed to returning to Tallahassee to finalize the state budget and to revise the congressional apportionment map, which has its own controversies attached given that incumbents in the U.S. House worry that aggressive redistricting could endanger them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">DeSantis wants a constitutional amendment eliminating homestead property taxes, and it\u2019s conceivable that cousin nuptials could be part of the call for that Special Session.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If the DOH bill had become law, Florida would have joined the majority of states <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legalmatch.com\/law-library\/article\/cousin-marriage-laws.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">banning the practice<\/a>\u00a0that is considered to be taboo in the West but a more traditional practice in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/americanreformer.org\/2025\/03\/a-protestant-approach-to-first-cousin-marriage-bans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">the developing world<\/a>. Still, roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/fivethirtyeight.com\/features\/how-many-americans-are-married-to-their-cousins\/#:~:text=An%20estimated%200.2%20percent%20of,a%20great%2Dgrandparent%20with%20you.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">1 in 500 marriages<\/a>\u00a0results from a union of first cousins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of now, it&#8217;s legal to marry your aunt or uncle&#8217;s kid in Florida. Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis is turning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[90257,97357,97358,28,30,29,7289,97359],"class_list":{"0":"post-212987","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-cousin-marriage","9":"tag-cousins","10":"tag-first-cousins","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-gov-ron-desantis","15":"tag-hb-733"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}