Virginia Scraps Plan To Make Oral Sex Between 17-Year-Olds A Felony

Sodomy obsessed former AG Ken Cuccinelli

Apparently nationwide mockery - actually even international mockery since even British news outlets ridiculed the state - has made Virginia Republicans think twice about resurrecting the state's twice invalidated sodomy statute and instead make oral and anal sex offenses on the same level as other sexual offenses by amending other provisions of the Virginia Code.  What's left of the sodomy statute would only apply to bestiality and incest offenses.  The substitute legislation can be seen here. Its an approach that follows the argument that was made on this blog on more than one occasion.  No doubt the Christofascists at The Family Foundation and Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli will be most distressed that gays will not be targeted for more severe criminal penalties than heterosexuals.  Think Progress has a summary:

Responding to concerns about a proposed bill that would have brought back much of Virginia’s infamous “Crimes Against Nature” law and potentially made felons out of 17-year-old couples engaging in consensual oral sex, the Virginia Senate Committee for Courts of Justice unanimously adopted a substitute version on Wednesday. The revised bill would generally treat prostitution, child molestation, and other illegal sex acts the same way for oral and anal sex as for vaginal intercourse. 

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and a former chief deputy attorney general of Virginia, told ThinkProgress that her group opposed Garrett’s original proposal as it would still not pass constitutional muster. “If we want true reform,” she notes, “we want clarity in the law that treats sex as sex, so the rules are the same for everybody.”

While Garrett did not respond to an inquiry from ThinkProgress about the potential impact of the bill, he later told the Huffington Post, “I have heard the concerns and have started to draft an amendment to my bill that will deal with the unintended consequences of a bill that is nothing but well-intended.”

Garrett worked with the committee to amend the bill to address the concerns. He told the Washington Post that his aim was to protect children and would support clarifying its language to make clear that “sex acts are sex acts,” adding that “we need to make sure we protect children… not from each other.”

If enacted, it would end a decades-long struggle between privacy advocates and anti-LGBT groups like Virginia’s Family Foundation. The Crimes Against Nature law, which made oral and anal sex (even between consenting married couples) a felony in Virginia, was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas. But the state legislature refused to update the law and as a result, federal courts ruled in 2013 that even the provisions of the law dealing with child predators were unenforceable.

It is encouraging to see that the Virginia GOP may be finally coming to fear nationwide and international mockery more than the threats of The Family Foundation's dominatrix like president, Victoria Cobb.  Ms. Cobb must be acting like someone peed in her Cheerios after this change in the proposed bill.

The Virginia GOP's anti-gay dominatrix