Of course, I'd never get enough votes here in the Bible Belt where logic is not welcomed.
Bugs the tar out of me that laws attempting to control people who are willfully engaged in something together, with no detriment to others, are on the books. Hell, by their definition artificial insemination sourced from a sperm bank is prostitution!
Just boggles the mind at what's illegal yet commonly accepted, and certainly NOT prosecuted. In the text below both participants are willingly involved, above the age of legal consent, and can be single. Throw some money into the mix and they'll call it prostitution too.
These laws are still on the books today in North Carolina:
"If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor..."
NC GS 14-184
"Any man and woman found occupying the same bedroom in any hotel, public inn or boardinghouse for any immoral purpose...shall be deemed guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor..."
NC GS 14-186
And for the coup de grace:
"Prostitution. – The performance of, offer of, or agreement to perform vaginal intercourse, any sexual act as defined in G.S. 14-27.1, or any sexual contact as defined in G.S. 14-27.1, for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification
for any money or other consideration."
Stay with me here, but "other consideration" could be a wedding ring and building a life together. Plenty of religions focus on "no sex unless you're married", meaning you have to pay for the marriage (and perhaps the divorce later) in order to have sex. Maybe that "other consideration" is a great review on TER? Maybe it's a weekend in the mountains? Maybe it's jewelry given between a husband and wife? If you review the section below it specifically carves out an exemption for vaginal intercourse meaning a husband & wife can have sex with each other for money/jewelry/vacations, and it's legal; but a blowjob for the same consideration would be illegal.
Well now, what's a sex act in the fair state of North Carolina? According to NC GS 14-27.1 it's:
(4) "Sexual act" means cunnilingus, fellatio, analingus, or anal intercourse, but does not include vaginal intercourse. Sexual act also means the penetration, however slight, by any object into the genital or anal opening of another
person's body: provided, that it shall be an affirmative defense that the penetration was for accepted medical purposes.
(5) "Sexual contact" means (i) touching the sexual organ, anus, breast, groin, or buttocks of any person, (ii) a person touching another person with their own sexual organ, anus, breast, groin, or buttocks, or (iii) a person ejaculating, emitting, or placing semen, urine, or feces upon any part of another person.
(6) "Touching" as used in subdivision (5) of this section, means physical contact with another person, whether accomplished directly, through the clothing of the person committing the offense, or through the clothing of the victim
It was nice of them to carve out, as an afterthought, a colonoscopy from the sexual act definition. It's funny that they can still charge you and your doctor, it's just that the charges would be dismissed once you reached court. Crazy.
but they have been mostly invalidated by either State or US Supreme Court rulings, so they can not be enforced, for the most part.
No legislator wants to be known as the guy or gal who proposed making sodomy, etc. legal, so the situation never changes
Of course, I'd never get enough votes here in the Bible Belt where logic is not welcomed.
Bugs the tar out of me that laws attempting to control people who are willfully engaged in something together, with no detriment to others, are on the books.
Hell, by their definition artificial insemination sourced from a sperm bank is prostitution!
They thought they had ratified the 13th amendment in 1995, still amazing it took that long, but didn't forward the proper info to the Feds. Finally did it right in early 2013.
If I recall correctly, at one time in the Commonwealth of Virginia (I think, I might have the wrong state though) if a man and woman spent the night together it constituted a common law marriage!
I do believe that's changed to something like 7 years now.