Can First Cousins Married in Colorado Live Together Legally in Texas?

Attorney Answer

Texas marriage law is not the obstacle here. Texas Family Code Section 6.201 lists four relationships that make a marriage void and first cousins are not among them. The real exposure is criminal: Texas Penal Code Section 25.02(a)(6) makes sexual relations between first cousins a third-degree felony, and it writes in no exception for couples validly married in another state. Talk to a Texas family law attorney before you move.

Colorado allows first cousins to marry, so your marriage was valid where it happened. Texas Family Code Section 6.201, added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 7 and not amended since, makes a marriage void only where the parties are related as an ancestor or descendant; a brother or sister; a parent's brother or sister, meaning an aunt or uncle; or a son or daughter of a brother or sister, meaning a niece or nephew. First cousins appear nowhere on that list. The 2005 change people often attribute to this section was actually an amendment to the Penal Code, discussed below. So nothing in the Family Code's void list makes your Colorado marriage void in Texas.

That simplifies the recognition question too. Texas Family Code Section 1.103 applies Texas law to people who married elsewhere and then make Texas their home, and as a general rule states recognize a marriage that was valid where it was performed. Applied to you, Texas law contains no cousin bar for a court to apply, so there is no consanguinity ground on which to refuse your marriage. Recognition usually matters when the marriage is the basis for something concrete, such as taxes, insurance, inheritance, or a divorce, and a Texas attorney can confirm that nothing else in your particular facts changes this.

The real thing you deserve to know sits in the Penal Code. Texas Penal Code Section 25.02(a)(6), as amended by Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 268 (S.B. 6), effective September 1, 2005, makes it an offense to engage in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with the son or daughter of your aunt or uncle of the whole or half blood or by adoption, which describes a first cousin. Under Section 25.02(c) that is a third-degree felony. The statute does not spell out an exception for couples validly married in another state. Whether it would ever be applied to a couple in your position is untested, but because the words of the law contain no carve-out, this is exactly the kind of question to put to a Texas attorney before you move rather than after.

One clear piece of good news: if you have children, their legal relationship to both of you does not depend on whether Texas treats the marriage as valid. Texas law establishes the parent-child relationship on its own terms, so your children would still legally be your children.

What you can do

1. Talk with a Texas family law attorney before relocating, and ask directly how your Colorado marriage would be treated for taxes, insurance, inheritance, medical decisions, and any future divorce. 2. Keep certified copies of your Colorado marriage certificate in an accessible place. 3. Ask the attorney about protections that do not depend on the marriage being recognized, such as powers of attorney, medical directives, and wills naming each other. 4. If the attorney sees meaningful risk in your specific plans, ask what steps would reduce it before you establish a Texas home.

This is general legal information, not legal advice, and a Texas family law attorney can review your specific plans and documents.