These Married Cousins Are Trying To Change Utah Laws To Recognize Their Union…Yikes!

Finding the right person to spend the rest of your life is hard. Everyone knows that. They say you have to kiss a few handfuls of frogs to find your match, ultimately finding them one way or another. Sometimes it’s a new person you meet, sometimes it’s a childhood friend who you grow up with and end up falling love throughout time. If so…then congratulations, you both have a strong bond. Like Michael and Angie, who met when they were children…because they are cousins.

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Yes, the first cousin from Utah tied the knot in Colorado, and say they have loved each other since childhood. Seriously. Turns out the couple is fighting for their right to get married in their home state, saying love shouldn’t be limited to them because their parents are siblings.

Although Michael and Angie are married in Colorado they aren’t considered husband and wife in their home state of Utah because they are cousins. And Utah thinks that’s gross, as we all should. Because it’s incest, and once again gross, and just plain wrong.

These Married Cousins Are Trying To Change Utah Laws To Recognize Their Union...Yikes! (7)
Angie Peang Via CBS News

In Utah, it is illegal for first cousins to get married unless they are 65 or 55 if they can prove they are infertile. But the Lee’s say the law is antiquated, and there is no real basis for the restriction which is why they are gathering signatures through a Care2 petition in hopes of changing the law. So if you’re into that, then by all means, sign the petition.

How did everything start? Well, according to Michael, the couple knew there was a spark in second grade. Michael told his mother that he was going to marry Angie, to which his mother said, “No, I’m sorry, you can’t but you can be friends.” Like any mother would, of course.

Angie’s father is the oldest of 12 children, and Michael’s mother is the fifth child in the same family, so they are brothe and sister. Over the years, the family would take vacations together but “social norms would draw them apart.” Then the Lee’s, who are both recently single and divorced, reunited after 10 years of being apart. Now they are finally ready “to disregard the risk” and not listen to what the family thinks.

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So why is this a problem? Well, according researchers at Columbia University, first cousins share 12.5 percent of their DNA. If the cousins have children, they can face up 4 to 7 percent of their children having a genetic disorder, as opposed to a 3 to 4 percent change for the average couple. In the U.S. 24 states ban marriage between first cousins, and in six allow it under certain circumstances which include the couple receiving genetic counseling. Because once again…it’s incest.

I can’t be the only one that thinks this is wrong, right? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for that ‘love is love’ no matter what anyone says, but your first COUSIN? This is too much, it’s just not how life is supposed to work. Heck, if it was, everyone would be marrying their cousins and their siblings. Someone bring Simon Cowell and tell him to yell at these people because it’s getting out of hand.

Watch: 9 Marriage Tips from the Divorced

What do you think?

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