Fact Check

Did Alabama Bless 'Incest' Marriages Between Brothers and Sisters, Uncles and Nieces?

A routine review of content labeled satire.

Published Sept. 13, 2019

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama Road Sign along Interstate 10 in Robertsdale, Alabama USA, near the State Border with Florida. (Getty Images)
Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama Road Sign along Interstate 10 in Robertsdale, Alabama USA, near the State Border with Florida. (Image courtesy of Getty Images)
Claim:
Alabama legalized incestual marriages between brothers and sisters and uncles and nieces.

On June 30, 2018, Huzlers.com published an article positing that the state of Alabama had "blessed" incestual relationships and that brothers and sisters, as well as uncles and nieces, could now be officially married:

Alabama Blesses ‘Incest’ Marriage Between Brothers And Sisters, Uncles And Nieces Are Now Legal

The states highest court has toppled a cultural taboo — legalizing a degree of incest, between brothers and sister and uncles and nieces — in a unanimous ruling.

Judge James Hamilton of the Court of Appeals wrote, “Such unions were lawful in Alabama until 1890.”

This item was not a factual recounting of real-life events. The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:

Huzlers is a Chicago based satirical news blog that focuses on celebrities, hip hop and urban entertainment.

A Twitter user brought more attention to this post when he shared a message on Twitter in August 2019 stating that Alabama had "just legalized sibling incest marriage." The tweet, which was reshared more than 18,000 times, did not include a link to the satire piece it was based on:

@hancockderek clarified that his tweet was posted in jest and that it was based on a piece of satire. As of this writing, the message explaining that his original tweet was based on a piece of fiction had only four retweets:

Notes

Why We Include Humor and Satire in Snopes.com

Sources

Huzlers.com.   "Alabama Blesses ‘Incest’ Marriage Between Brothers And Sisters, Uncles And Nieces Are Now Legal."     30 June 2018.

Article Tags