New bride sparks controversy after presenting ‘purity certificate’ to father

A bride in Maryland has got the Internet’s tongues wagging after she gave her father a certificate verifying her “purity” on her wedding day.

The certificate confirms she remained a virgin until marriage after a doctor checked that her hymen was intact.

Brelyn Bowman wrote on Instagram she signed a covenant with her father when she was 13 to remain a virgin until marriage, and on her wedding day, she wanted to surprise her father with the certificate that confirmed she kept her promise.

Once she posted her story with this Instagram post of her father-daughter dance, it sparked widespread reaction.

Supporters, skeptics and critics have all had their say; some critics say the certificate is “sexist” and “creepy.”

Brelyn and her husband Tim Bowman Jr., a gospel singer who also remained a virgin until marriage, told NBC that they didn’t expect such a huge reaction.

“At that moment, we had a brief meeting,” he said. “We made a decision that we were happy that people were even talking about it.”

Though Brelyn’s so-called purity was determined by the status of her hymen, it has been widely documented that the hymen is not a reliable factor to determine virginity.

The newlyweds said in an interview with Fox that abstaining from sex during their three-year courtship wasn’t easy.

“I can’t count them on my fingers!” said Brelyn of the times she said she wanted to break her covenant. “It’s not that we didn’t want to have sex, because we were created that way. We wanted to. But that’s why we have each other and others to keep us accountable.”

In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Brelyn’s father Mike Freeman, a pastor, said all of his three children signed the same covenant.

His eldest daughter Brittney presented him with a certificate of purity at her wedding. His son Joshua did have premarital sex.

“I love all three just the same. It’s not about what they did for me, rather what they did for themselves,” Mike Freeman said.