It's an age-old tradition that has been followed, seemingly without too much protest, for years. For most, making the switch to their husband's last name is exciting; a sort of "final seal" on the lifelong vows you've made. But many women are challenging this tradition nowadays, especially those who are less religious and more educated.
Looking for a place to live with your boyfriend in Florida? There's a cozy one-room studio behind bars waiting for you. A state law that dates back to the 1800's condemns opposite-sex unmarried couples living under the same roof.
Believe it or not, if Bayou State residents were convicted of "unnatural carnal copulation" (aka oral and anal sex), they were at risk of being charged with a felony and forced to register as a sex offender. In addition to the charge, the label was also branded on driver's licenses. Looks like the Scarlet Letter had some competition, Hester Prynne.
Across the country couples face the tough decision: to marry or not to marry. But in California that decision is being left up to a judge. A federal judge can't order that people change their minds, however. No court can. Essentially, who is responsible for making important decisions about marriage?
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and Dr. Lynn Arcara made this much clear when she sued the women who broke up her marriage for $5.8 million. And won. Well, sort of.
A very strange case in California has highlighted the need for revisions to the law. It's currently not possible to make any money from a divorce if you've attempted or succeeded in murdering your spouse, but you can still get divided communal assets if you hire or attempt to hire someone to do the deed. Many people feel this loophole is unfair, against the spirit of the law and should be closed as soon as it is convenient for everyone involved.
In case you haven't been keeping up with gay marriage news on an international front: it's two steps forward, one step back. For every city and country legalizing same-sex marriage, another knocks gay rights back decades, if not centuries (hello, prison sentences).
Getting vocal during sex isn't a crime—unless you live in England and the noises you make are so loud and disturbing, it "constitutes [as] a statutory nuisance." One woman is now banned from noisy sex throughout all of the United Kingdom.
Until the 1980s, most states required people to get a blood test in order to get a marriage license. The test, which screened for certain illnesses, like syphilis and rubella, was put in place to cut down on the spread of communicable diseases and prevent birth defects. By 2006, however, the blood test requirement was phased out everywhere U.S. except Washington D.C. and Mississippi. Three researchers (Kasey Buckles of Notre Dame, Melanie Guldi of Mount Holyoke, and Joseph Price of Brigham Young) recently decided to find out if the elimination of the blood test had any relationship to the number of couples who applied for marriage licenses each year. Studying data on state marriage rates between 1980 and 2006, they found that, when blood tests were required, 5.7% fewer licenses were issued
Forget sex. Kissing can be one of the most intimate, sensual, and just plain fun things you can do with another person. And as anyone who is sex-educated knows: the better the foreplay, the better the sex. Read on to discover ten unusual kissing facts, and be grateful that locking lips no longer leads you to the guillotine.
It seems quite silly really. Deny heterosexual couples the right to get married? Not in this country. But aha! We could be headed there very shortly if definition is to be followed and conservatives are not to be questioned.
