A Maryland preacher’s daughter was a virgin when she got married and she has the doctor-endorsed purity certificate to prove it.
Brelyn Bowman presented her father, Pastor Mike Freeman, with a “certificate of purity” at her lavish wedding earlier this month. The diploma-sized document was signed by her doctor and certified that her hymen was intact.
“This was my way to honor him,” the bride said on Good Day DC. “He was so excited because it's not nothing he required. He didn't ask.
The newlywed said her new husband, Timothy Bowman, was also a virgin when they tied the knot on Oct. 10. Before their first date, they talked about how they both wanted to hold off on sex until marriage.
Brelyn Bowman said she took a virginity pledge when she was 13 years old, promising to herself and her parents that she would only have sex with her future husband. Faith has always been a huge part of her life, the bride said. Her dad is the pastor of Spirit of Faith Christian Center in Temple Hills.
Her sister inspired her to draw up the purity certificate, the bookend to the virginity pledge, she said.
“My sister, who was a virgin when she got married, did the same thing. And she was an example for me, so now I can be an example for others,” she said.
The white and gold certificate, presented to Freeman just before their father-daughter dance, stated that the bride’s hymen was still intact.
Critics quickly pointed out that the hymen, a layer of tissue that partially covers the vagina, does not correlate to virginity. The tissue can wear away before a woman has sex, and some women who have had penetrative sex may still have unchanged hymens.
“Your value as a person has nothing to do with your hymen or how many people you've had sex with,” one user commented on an Instagram of the certificate. “This is just sick.”
Others pointed out the double standard: Women are encouraged and expected to keep their virginity until they are married while such pressures are lesser, if not nonexistent, for men.
“And where is her husband's certificate? Was he supposed to get some sort of evidence to present to his Mother?” another commenter asked.
The Bowmans, who dated for three years before they tied the knot, said they fought off regular urges to have premarital sex before their wedding.
“I can’t count them on my fingers!” Brelyn Bowman joked of the times she wanted to have sex. “It’s not that we didn’t want to have sex. We were created that way, so we wanted to.”
The couple relied on support from each other and their families to stick to their promise.
“We believe that if you value yourself, you can do it,” Brelyn Bowman said, before clarifying that the now-married couple is “no longer waiting.”
“We are no longer waiting,” she clarified.