Whether you can legally marry your cousin in the United States depends entirely on the state where you live, since there’s no federal law addressing cousin marriage one way or the other. This is purely a matter of state family law, and the rules genuinely vary from one state completely permitting it to another treating it as a criminal offense.
Which States Allow First-Cousin Marriage Outright
A significant number of states permit marriage between first cousins with no restrictions whatsoever. This group includes states like California, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Vermont, and Connecticut, among others. In these states, first cousins can obtain a marriage license the same way any other couple would, without needing to demonstrate infertility, obtain special court approval, or meet any additional legal hurdles beyond the standard marriage requirements that apply to everyone.
States That Allow It Only With Conditions
A second group of states permits first-cousin marriage but only if the couple meets specific conditions first. Several states require proof that at least one partner is unable to have biological children, either due to age or a medical condition, before issuing a marriage license to first cousins. Other states in this category require genetic counseling before the marriage can proceed, giving the couple formal information about potential health considerations for any children they might have. This middle-ground approach reflects lawmakers trying to balance personal freedom with concerns specifically tied to reproduction, rather than banning the marriages outright.
States Where First-Cousin Marriage Is Completely Illegal
Roughly half the states in the country prohibit marriage between first cousins entirely, treating it as void from the start regardless of the couple’s intentions or circumstances. States in this category include Texas, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington, and a considerable number of others spread across every region of the country. In these states, a marriage license simply won’t be issued to first cousins, and if a couple somehow married in a state where it was legal and then moved to a state where it’s prohibited, that marriage’s legal recognition can become genuinely complicated depending on the specific state’s approach to recognizing out-of-state marriages.
Why the Rules Differ So Much From State to State
Marriage law in the United States has always been left almost entirely to individual states rather than the federal government, and this particular issue reflects decades of differing approaches to genetics, religious tradition, and social attitudes toward family relationships. States that restrict or ban cousin marriage have historically cited concerns about increased genetic risk for children born to closely related parents. States that permit it point out that the actual increase in genetic risk for first cousins is smaller than many people assume, comparable in some research to the elevated risk associated with parents over 40 having children, and that many countries around the world, along with several American states, have never treated the practice as inherently more dangerous than any other marriage.
What Counts as a “First Cousin” Under These Laws
This distinction matters more than people initially realize. A first cousin is generally defined as the child of your parent’s sibling, meaning you share a set of grandparents. Some states draw meaningfully different lines for more distant relationships. Second cousins, who share great-grandparents rather than grandparents, are permitted to marry in virtually every single state in the country, including states that completely ban first-cousin marriage. This means a couple who are second cousins face essentially no state-level restriction anywhere, since the genetic and legal concerns driving first-cousin restrictions generally don’t extend to more distantly related family members.
What Happens If You Marry in One State and Move to Another
This is a genuinely tricky area worth understanding before making major life decisions. Most states generally recognize marriages that were legally performed in another state, following a legal principle sometimes called comity between states. However, cousin marriage represents one of the areas where this general rule occasionally breaks down, since some states have specific statutes declaring that they won’t recognize a first-cousin marriage performed elsewhere, even if the marriage was completely legal in the state where it took place. Couples considering marrying in a permissive state with plans to eventually relocate to a restrictive state should genuinely research this specific issue carefully beforehand, ideally with guidance from a family law attorney familiar with both states involved.
Why This Isn’t Treated the Same as Marrying a Sibling or Parent
It’s worth understanding why cousin marriage occupies such a different legal category compared to marriage between much closer relatives, like siblings or a parent and child. Every single state in the country, without exception, criminalizes marriage and sexual relationships between these much closer family members, generally under incest statutes that carry serious felony penalties. Cousin marriage law operates in an entirely separate legal category specifically because first cousins share a meaningfully smaller percentage of genetic material than siblings or parent-child relationships do, which is precisely why state laws treat the two situations so differently, with cousin marriage falling into a spectrum ranging from fully permitted to fully banned, rather than being universally criminalized the way incest between closer relatives is.
What Happens If You Marry Your Cousin in a State Where It’s Banned
In states where first-cousin marriage is prohibited, attempting to obtain a marriage license as first cousins will simply result in the license being denied at the county clerk’s office, since these offices are required to verify family relationships aren’t prohibited before issuing a license. If a couple somehow circumvents this by concealing their relationship and a marriage license gets issued anyway, the marriage would generally be considered void once discovered, meaning it carries no legal recognition despite having gone through a ceremony, though the specific legal process for formally voiding such a marriage varies by state.
FAQs
Q1. Can my cousin and I get married in a state that allows it, and then just move to a state that doesn’t?
It’s genuinely complicated and depends on the specific state you’re moving to. Some states recognize any marriage legally performed elsewhere, but others have specific laws refusing to recognize first-cousin marriages regardless of where they took place, so this needs individual research before relocating.
Q2. Is marrying a second cousin restricted anywhere in the United States?
No, second-cousin marriage is permitted in every single state, including states that completely prohibit first-cousin marriage, since the relationship is considered distant enough that these restrictions generally don’t apply.
Q3. Do the states that require genetic counseling actually check this before issuing the marriage license?
Yes, in states with this requirement, couples typically need to provide documentation showing they’ve completed genetic counseling as part of the marriage license application process, and the license won’t be issued without it.
Q4. Does federal law recognize cousin marriages performed legally in a state that allows them?
Federal recognition of marriage generally follows state law recognition, meaning if your state of residence recognizes your cousin marriage as valid, federal benefits and recognition typically follow that state determination as well.
