New York State allows you to marry this relative: Find out who
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Did you know New York is a "Kissing cousin state?"
“New York State does not permit Marriage Licenses to be issued to an ancestor and a descendant such as between a parent and child or grandparent and grandchild,” the NYC Office of the City Clerk for New York’s website states.
That means that, under New York law, marrying your first cousin is legal and protected by the state. New York also allows a niece to marry her mother's half-brother, but she cannot marry her mother's full brother.
All these terms might be tricky, but a website is dedicated to explaining cousin marriage.
A first cousin is a non-sibling with whom you share grandparents, meaning this person is usually family-related and is the offspring of an uncle or an aunt. A second cousin is a non-sibling who shares great-grandparents, according to American weddings.
“In the United States, only 0.2% of marriages are between first or second cousins. To put that into perspective, About 3,980 of the 1.99 million couples married in the US in 2021 may have been cousins," according to American Weddings.
New York and the states of Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia allow cousins to marry each other. It is also legal in the District of Columbia, according to Cousin Couples.
For more information on first-cousin marriage and other frequently asked questions regarding marriage, click here.
Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here.