Missouri: home to child marriage, corporal punishment and sick ‘child welfare’ ideas | Arwa Mahdawi

Missouri lawmakers - great defenders of children! - want to force teachers to register as sex offenders if they use a trans child's preferred pronouns

Did you know that child marriage is still legal in much of the US? About 300,000 children and teenagers were legally married in the US between 2000 and 2018, according to the advocacy group Unchained at Last. At least 60,000 of those marriages occurred at an age or with a spousal age difference that should have been considered a sex crime".

Did you know that, until quite recently, Missouri was a destination wedding spot" for children who wanted to tie the knot? The state has tightened its child marriage laws now - and is seeking to ban the practice - but not all lawmakers are happy about the changes. Missouri state senator Mike Moon said last year that he knows kids who have been married at age 12 (to another minor) and they're thriving"!

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist