Some things just should not happen. But some laws fail to protect, some crimes go unpunished. Justice may be blinded by wealth, status, and sphere of influence. Florida native Sherry Johnson was forced to marry the man who forced himself upon her. She was raped when she was just 10 years old, got pregnant, and gave birth. The culprit was a church deacon, who escaped legal punishment by marrying his victim, even though she was just 11 years old. The sad fact is that Johnson is just one of the 700 million women in the world that have been married as children.
Johnson has made it her mission to ensure that no other children meet the same fate as she did. Her goal is to shed light on child marriage in the US, but unfortunately, all 50 states allow marriage before 18 years of age, depending on the circumstances. Rape is rape, no matter how you put it. What circumstances allowed the rape of a child and marriage after?
The fact is, more than 167,000 children have been married before their 17th birthday in 38 states between 2000 and 2010. Almost 10% of those were in Florida. But how many were as young as 11 years old? Florida is one of the 25 states which allows a child of any age to marry. Again given certain circumstances, which seem to be unclear.
Johnson’s story, while unfortunate and pitiful, showed her strength and resilience. She said she was not able to do many things normal children her age did. She never had the privilege to play with a doll and make believe, she had a real baby to take care of, feeding, changing diapers, and so on.
But the story has more misery. She survived a rape by the church bishop whe she was just 8 years old, and soon, by her mother’s husband. She was raped again when she was 9 years old by the church deacon until she got pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, alone, in Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. She mentioned she didn’t even understand what was happening, it devastated her. You could just imagine her fear and bewilderment, being only 10 years old, with nobody by her side.
Authorities investigated the case, the church deacon forced her to marry him to cover things up. In Florida, you can be married at any age if you are pregnant or have a child, even if the age of marriage is 18. Well, the crime was committed, but instead of the deacon being punished, it was the little girl who was, by having to marry him.
She finally got divorced at 17, but not until she gave birth to 5 other children. Each time she got pregnant, she was taken out of school. She went back to school, but constantly had to rely on others to make decisions for her. In the eyes of the law, she was not considered to be in the age of accountability to be responsible for her life. So it was her mom and the deacon who made decisions for her. You can bet it was not for her own good. Life is so unfair at times. That kind of sums up her childhood.
Life from then was a constant struggle, yet she never neglected her kids. Unfortunately, after her divorce, she married 2 more times, with similar men, living in similar conditions. Some people really have it bad. But she was able to forgive herself, and moved on with her life.
Johnson knows all too well the hardships of child marriage, and fought to address the problem. She knew the kids won’t be able to protect themselves, and will live miserably. She has been working to close these loopholes in Florida and other parts of the US, but it has been an uphill struggle. She asked the help of Cynthia Stafford, a Democratic House Representative to present a bill to stop child marriage in 2013 and firmly establish the minimum age of 18 without exceptions. The bill passed unanimously in the House, but unfortunately, not in the Senate. She has been literally knocking on Senators’ doors to appeal, but she says some of them don’t even believe her story to be true. Really, all they had to do was gather the factual evidence, even just for the birth certificates as well as her marriage certificate. Most of the politicians also are not aware of the loopholes. It is sad but true.
She has not given up, and continues to fight to this day for the bill to be passed across the nation. After her experience, can you blame her? Surely she doesn’t want others to experience the hell she went through, simply because of loopholes and flaws in the law.
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