# marriage legality **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 11, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182 "2018-09-11T19:39:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/41 "2018-09-13T00:40:07Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Well, now we are arguing over minutes of time. 🙂 I agree that once the legal requirements have been met, the couple is married. However, we don’t know that all of that has happened until the officiant makes his pronouncement. Sure we do. Everyone who is present to hear the officiant say this was also present when the legal requirements were met, and was a witness to their being met. So they know they were met. Plus, the laws of most jurisdictions don’t require the officiant to say this. Saying it is just a tradition. It has no legal significance. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/42 "2018-09-13T01:24:36Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Amusing anecdote: > > Way back when I was “seeing” the woman who is now my wife, I was helping her put up an outdoor shed. I’m glad it wasn’t the indoor shed. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/43 "2018-09-13T08:17:57Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Assuming you are in Ohio like your location field says, no luck with common law marriage. Ohio hasn’t recognized it since 1991. They haven’t moved the goal posts: they’ve just changed the signage. Ohio has child-support guidelines that no longer require “marriage” to prove “liability”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/44 "2018-09-13T11:48:07Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > They haven’t moved the goal posts: they’ve just changed the signage. Ohio has child-support guidelines that no longer require “marriage” to prove “liability”. Child-support doesn’t directly relate to marriage. Establishing liability for child support is not really relevant to whether a couple is married, even if marriage has traditionally been used to establish liability. There are no children mentioned in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/45 "2018-09-13T16:55:27Z")
In the U.S.A. and some other Western countries you’re either married or you’re not. Not so in Thailand, where there are four distinct “ways to marry” which (with one exception) can be combined in any combination: [ul][li] live together as man and wife[/li][li] register marriage with the District government[/li][li] perform the wrist-tieing ritual[/li][li] have a wedding ceremony (making merit to an odd number of monks, etc.)[/li][/ul] The exception is that a wedding ceremony will always include the wrist-tieing ritual. A young couple living together who intend to have a wedding, but must wait to raise a satisfactory bride-price are faced with a dilemma. A wrist-tieing would effectively deny the intention to have a wedding, but failure to tie wrists would annoy the ancient animist spirits and signify that the couple is living in sin. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/46 "2018-09-13T23:32:24Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Child-support doesn’t directly relate to marriage. Establishing liability for child support is not really relevant to whether a couple is married, even if marriage has traditionally been used to establish liability. There are no children mentioned in the OP. Yes. What I said. You’re still liable for child support, even though Ohio no longer calls it “marriage”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/47 "2018-09-14T01:46:00Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Yes. What I said. You’re still liable for child support, even though Ohio no longer calls it “marriage”. Child support doesn’t have anything to do with marriage, common law or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/48 "2018-09-14T15:38:35Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Legally, marriage is binary. Either you are married in the eyes of society or you aren’t. Unless you are legally married in some states but not others. SSM used to be like that along with a couple of other states where marrying underage girls is legal (Kansas comes to mind). ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/49 "2018-09-14T20:35:03Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Unless you are legally married in some states but not others. SSM used to be like that along with a couple of other states where marrying underage girls is legal (Kansas comes to mind). Each state is still a society. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182/50 "2018-09-14T20:52:34Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Each state is still a society. You are tempting me to get into a battle of pedantry. Tempting, I say! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marriage-legality/821182.md?page=2)