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In Tampa, Florida, efforts to pass legislation prohibiting marriage between first cousins have been thwarted in the state Senate.
Lawmakers decided against advancing HB-733, a bill aimed at ensuring that any marriage deemed “incestuous” would not be legally acknowledged within Florida’s borders starting July 1, 2026.
The bill had proposed that a man “may not marry any woman to whom he is related by lineal consanguinity, nor his sister, nor his aunt, nor his niece,” while a woman cannot marry a man “whom she is related by lineal consanguinity, nor her brother, nor her uncle, nor her nephew.”
State Representative Dean Black told Florida’s Action News Jax that he expects another vote on the same issue sometime in the future.
“There are plenty of people here, and there are plenty of people you can find to be your lifelong partner without looking to your first cousin,” Black said.
Florida is one of more than a dozen states where marrying your first cousin is legal, but most of the United States has banned such marriages.