Friday, March 29, 2024

First Cousins Launch Petition to Legally Marry in Utah

First Cousins Launch Petition to Legally Marry in Utah
via @CBSNews

*Two first cousins tied the knot this week in Colorado, where marriage between first cousins is allowed. Now, as reported by CBS News, they’re trying to get legally married in their home state of Utah.

“My first cousin and I have been in love with each other our whole lives but we are prohibited from marrying in the state of Utah where we live,” Angela Peang writes in the petition. “We believe that the law is outdated and it needs to be changed so that we can socially legitimize our love.”

According to the report, the couple’s goal is to get 1,000 signatures; as of Wednesday morning, about 75 have signed on in support.

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Peang told CBS News she has been in love with her cousin, Michael Lee, since second grade.

“We just always played a lot,” Peang remembered of their childhood. “We went into a closet and we were kissing and dancing together. It just felt really natural.”

“He told my mom he was going to marry me,” Peang said. When family members once caught the cousins were kissing, “We got in trouble,” she recalled. “After that we were kind of kept apart.”

Angie and Michael hadn’t seen each other in about 10 years before they reconnected at their grandmother’s house last Christmas. They were each previously married to other people and Peang had three children with her husband. Both couples eventually divorced.

“We felt a lot of love and missed each other over the years,” she said. “We decided that we were just going to be open with our love. It was really scary to think about how our family would react because they are conservative Mormons… we thought we might be excluded.”


Of course, their coupling has received mixed responses from family members.

Peang said her youngest child has no issue with mom hooking up with her cousin but the two older daughters have dubbed it “wrong” and “weird.”

Peang and Lee are not legally allowed to get married in Utah, but the law is different in Colorado. So on Monday, they travelled to Grand Junction and tied the knot at the courthouse.

“I am officially a married man with a bright future,” Lee wrote afterward on Facebook. “I am completely ecstatic about finally being married to my Angie.”

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