MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1997 Regular Session

To: Judiciary

By: Senator(s) White (29th)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 93-1-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROHIBIT HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGES; TO AMEND SECTION 93-1-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE THAT HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGES RECOGNIZED IN ANOTHER STATE SHALL NOT BE RECOGNIZED IN THIS STATE AND SHALL BE DECLARED VOID IN THIS STATE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 93-1-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

93-1-1. (1) The son shall not marry his grandmother, his mother, or his stepmother; the brother his sister; the father his daughter, or his legally adopted daughter, or his grand-daughter; the son shall not marry the daughter of his father begotten of his stepmother, or his aunt, being his father's or mother's sister, nor shall the children of brother or sister, or brothers and sisters intermarry being first cousins by blood. The father shall not marry his son's widow; a man shall not marry his wife's daughter, or his wife's daughter's daughter, or his wife's son's daughter, or the daughter of his brother or sister; and the like prohibition shall extend to females in the same degrees. All marriages prohibited by this section are incestuous and void.

(2) Any marriage between persons of the same gender is prohibited, and any purported such marriage is null and void from the beginning.

SECTION 2. Section 93-1-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

93-1-3. Any attempt to evade Section 93-1-1 by marrying out of this state and returning to it shall be within the prohibitions of that section. Any marriage that is valid in another jurisdiction but is prohibited under Section 93-1-1 does not constitute a legal or valid marriage in Mississippi.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.