Wisconsin Hmong leaders work to legalize cultural weddings
Hmong leaders in Wisconsin are lobbying for a state law that would give legal status to cultural weddings so couples wouldn't need two ceremonies.
The Hmong 18 Council of Wisconsin, an elected group that coordinates issues among the state's 18 Hmong clans, is seeking legislation to allow marriage negotiators called Mejkoob to legally certify weddings. The council will hold a series of public forums on the legislation across Wisconsin this month.
Mejkoob negotiate terms of the union between the couple's families in traditional Hmong weddings, and two of them usually are present to represent each family, Daily Tribune Media reported. But most cultural weddings officiated by Mejkoob aren't legally recognized outside of the Hmong community.
Currently, Hmong couples who marry in cultural weddings must also have an "American" wedding for the union to be recognized by the state. Those who don't go through the bureaucratic step aren't considered officially married in the eyes of the state government.
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A change in the marriage law would help Hmong couples streamline the marriage process, as well as strengthen the standing of the Mejkoob within the community and possibly prevent forced marriages or marriages of underage children, according to Mao Khang of Wausau, a vice president on the Hmong 18 Council and the first woman to be elected to a statewide Hmong leadership team.
Noah Her and Bao Vang of St. Paul, Minn., were married in a traditional Hmong ceremony in Wausau, Wisc., and then had another wedding at the Marathon County Courthouse.
"It was like, fine, we'll go to the courthouse and make this legal," Vang said. "But it was kind of a pain. ... And it was, of all the days we shared together, one of the least important (emotionally) days of our lives. But on paper, in a legal sense, it was the most important day of our life."
If Mejkoob could legally certify the cultural weddings in Wisconsin, it would be a groundbreaking change, Khang said, because no other state recognizes the Hmong wedding officiants.
"This would be a kind of pilot program," she said. "It hasn't been done before."