In-Laws Twice Over

Someone came to this blog today by searching for....

can two siblings marry other two siblings?

If I understand correctly, this is asking if, for example, John Brown marries Jane Smith, if John's sister Mary Brown can marry Jane's brother Tom Smith.

The answer, at least in most places, is YES. And not only is this possible, but it happens, and it always has, for many reasons, including, but not limited to...

• When and where marriage has been a business deal between families or between fathers, it has sometimes made sense to "do business" in "bulk" or as repeat business.
• People choose spouses, in part, based on genetics, habits, values, and experience, much of which can be shared by siblings.
• Familiarity, as in after their siblings married each other, the siblings-in-law will have likely not only been introduced to each other, but spent some time around each other.
• Demographics and proximity. Families living close to each other with children around the same are likely to have more children around the same age as each other.
• Beards (marrying for show to hide orientation/sexuality/relationships from family or community in general). What I mean by this is, referring to the fictional names above, that John and Tom are the real couple, and Jane and Mary either don't know, or know and go along with it either because they're also a couple or because they're asexual or have other lovers or what have you. It has also been done this way because John and Mary are a consanguinamorous couple, and perhaps so are Jane and Tom. Or maybe the four of them are a quad.

There is even more to note here regarding the topics of this blog.

Not only will John and Jane's children be first cousins to Mary and Tom's children, but they will be double cousins.

First cousins can legally marry in many countries and in about half of US states. Full-blood (sharing two parents) siblings can't marry in any US state or any country of which we are aware, and people often cite Discredited Argument #18 as to why. However, double cousins can be as close/similar genetically as siblings are ( = they have two set of grandparents between them, whereas first cousins who aren't double have three sets of grandparents between them), and yet they can legally marry but siblings can't.

There have been cases in which identical twin brothers marry identical twin sisters. The children of the two couples are first (and double) cousins, and might as well be siblings genetically. If any of them want to marry when they're grown there are many places they could.

If you want a real-life example of identical twins marrying identical twins, see this article by Scott Sump at today.com...

Mark Sanders had just experienced love at first sight at a twins convention in Twinsburg, Ohio, when his first thought was that he better go find his identical twin brother.

Craig and Mark Sanders had stopped by the convention in 1998 when Mark met Darlene Nettemeier, who was there with her identical twin sister, Diane. The twin blondes were visiting family nearby and decided to stop by the event.

Got that?

Mark not only met his future wife, Darlene; he also ended up introducing his twin brother to his future wife - Diane. The two couples had a double wedding in 1999 after the brothers proposed on the same day.

But wait, there's more...

The two families now live next to one another in Houston...

Wow!

TODAY / Today

The sisters both have the same style of engagement ring, and they wore identical dresses at the wedding while their father walked both of them down the aisle at the same time.

It's good they get along so well.

The families have a shared backyard in Houston that allows the children to all play together. They admitted to occasionally mistaking an aunt or uncle for one of their parents when looking at them from behind.

It's sad this even needs to be asked if any consenting adults would be free to marry, but when various prejudiced limits on fundamental rights exist from place to place, people do have to wonder.

Wouldn't it be better just to let consenting adults be together, however they mutually agree, including within marriages, if that's what they want? That is why full marriage equality is needed.