Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Registrable Sex Offenses

"Oral copulation" and sodomy and indecent exposure are "registrable sex offenses" in the state of California, meaning that if convicted the person needs to register as a sex offender, be listed on Megans Law websites and announced to one's neighbors that one is a sex offender.

Indecent exposure, of course, includes women being topless in the same places where men are allowed to be topless (as discussed over at The Colonic).

Sodomy technically / historically means basically putting a penis anywhere other than a vagina, which could cover oral as well.

And former President Clinton would be a registered sex offender had the Oval Office been located in California instead of DC.



I know these are old laws that just happen to still be on the books and generally people aren't persecuted for them... but I don't really understand what's stopping us from saying, "Oh, hey, I found one of those out dated ones... Let's scratch that," with a general nod of unanimous agreement from everyone. I see them as merely being potential weapons to throw at someone for other purposes, like the homophobia demonstrated in Lawrence v Texas.

Does someone really need to get caught and drag a case up to the Supreme Court in order for these laws to be overturned? Because, a) that's kind of ridiculous and b) let's get some volunteers.

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