In The News

[browngirl]

Yay, Iowa! (Iowa Court Says Gay Marriage Ban Is Unconstitutional) (With thanks to half my Friendslist. :D) (Check out some excerpts! Courtesy ckd.)

Boo, Massachusetts!("Massachusetts state representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein has introduced a bill making it a crime for anyone over 60 to pose nude or sexually for a film or photo. The person taking the photo—whether a lover, artist, or commercial porn maker—would also face jail time.") (With thanks to halleyscomet, who has much more info at the link.)

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Re MA:
Oh my gawd!

[gritkitty.livejournal.com]

.... why 60? Sounds like an April Fool's joke, honestly. Because -- buh??? Really -- BUH???

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

60 is the state's legal definition of "elderly"

The law would also ban sex or sexually explicit communication with anyone who was over 60 or disabled. The way it's written it literally puts sex with the elderly or disabled on the same legal footing as child molestation and kiddie porn.

Did I mention the 10 year minimum jail term?

Did I mention there's no exception for mental capacity? It assumes ALL people over 60 are senile and everyone who is "disabled" is also mentally deficient.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

The "jail" part leaped out at me, yes.

Oy.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

How many people do we know who are disabled or over 60, yet still of sound mind? All their partners would be on the same legal footing as the producers of kiddie porn if this law passes.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

And what if their partner is also over 60? um......

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

We live in a country where teenagers who take nude photos of themselves end up jailed for producing kiddie porn. I suspect both partners would get to spend the next 10 to 20 years in jail if they were both over 60.

I wonder if it stacks. What if a partner is disabled AND over 60? Would that result in two charges with a total of 20 to 40 years?

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Of course not! Nobody is over 60 AND disabled.

That'd be like saying someone's black AND queer.

I mean, c'mon, it just doesn't happen.

< / sarcasm >

[moria923.livejournal.com]

I guess thorbol and I could live with it if they gave us the same jail cell. Of course then we'd accumulate multiple offenses.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh. Now I really feel old. Clearly, I'm disabled because I didn't notice that "over 60" part? So if my seventysomething husband decided he wanted to photograph me in my wrinkled birthday suit, and we lived in Massachusetts, they could haul him off to jail? That's just plain nuts.

Guess I'll have to go beat some Massachusetts legislators over the head with my cane.

Kathi-Anne Reinstein (Perhaps Too Many Fluffernutters?)

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Also in 2006 State Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein planned to file a bill that would make the Fluffernutter the official sandwich of Massachusetts.

Re: Kathi-Anne Reinstein (Perhaps Too Many Fluffernutters?)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Actually, that was in part a reaction to an even sillier bill that had been presented the previous year by Rep. Jarrett Barrios, which would have banned marshmallow Fluff in schools.

Re: Kathi-Anne Reinstein (Perhaps Too Many Fluffernutters?)

[mtgat]

Massachusetts: Officially Too Much Free Time.

Re: Kathi-Anne Reinstein (Perhaps Too Many Fluffernutters?)

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

yeah, no kidding. I wish I could give the Leg in this fair Commonwealth props for authorizing same-sex marriage--arguably our finest hour in recent years--but that came from the state Supreme Judicial Court.

[ilyena_sylph]

.........WTF Mass?

[ckd]

Between the state House and Senate, there are 200 legislators. Statistically, at least one of them is going to be a whackaloon about something.

[ilyena_sylph]

Well that's true. And it's not like I can talk, I'm from Missouri.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

At least your state doesn't have legislatures trying to make it illegal for grandparents to get busy behind closed doors.

My hope is that the state legislators will read the bill and realize it would make it illegal for many of THEM to engage in sexual activity.

[ilyena_sylph]

I'm not sure they aren't doing stupider things... but I take the point.

*snickers at your comment about the legislators*

I just had a thought, and I am probably giving the crazy too much credit, but have there been any incidents in Mass. of older people being photographed in, like, nursing homes by staff in... compromising positions, or something?

Because I can see a bill like this that was intended to keep people from taking advantage of those with diminished consent, but I take it from your post that that's not at all the case, which makes me go WTF?

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what happened and that's how the Boston Herald is spinning the bill.

State puts porn pervs in sights

The problem is, the law makes no exceptions for mental capacity. As far as the law is concerned, anyone over 60 is automatically senile and anyone with a disability is automatically incapable of giving consent.

[ilyena_sylph]

FFFFFFFFFFFFT.

Maybe a legislator with a brain will get hold of it and insert the necessary passages?

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

"a legislator with a brain"

Well first you have to find one...

[ilyena_sylph]

*drums rimshot appreciatively*

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

* bows *

Thank you

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Barney Frank is busy in DC.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

This means a legal marriage would be out of the question if one person is over 60, because the marriage could never be consumated legally. And anyone over the age of 60 couldn't vote, because they'd be legally insane. Thus, no legislators could be elected if they will be 60 before the end of their term. Since terms are 6 years in the senate, you can't be elected if you are over 53.999 years old when you are sworn in. And judges would legally be incompacitated, so as soon as they vote this bill in they'd be forced into involuntary retirement.

And this is a wonderful way of clearing out nursing homes! Simply let some frisky residents fool around, and wango bango, they're living in prison, instead of their retirement home, saving all that lovely retirement cash for their well-deserving children (who had better spend it all before they hit 60, or it will be taken from them the first time they get frisky).

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

just goes to show, missouri loves company!

[moechus.livejournal.com]

This assumes that the legislators are fairly representative of the population at large. Whereas, when one considers what one has to do to become a legislator, one concludes that statistically at least one of them is not going to be a whackaloon about something.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Here's a news article about the proposed "granny porn" law, for the curious. (I had to dig through about three layers of pointers to other peoples' blogs to come up with that, and was starting to wonder if it was a hoax because of the lack of cites.)

[solvent90.livejournal.com]

*blinks at Massachusetts bill* That is a bizarrely blunt instrument.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose if the legislator sees anyone over 60 as automatically senile and the term "disability" as an indication of being mentally feeble, it makes sense. All it takes is a complete and total disregard for the mental capacity of the people you're legislating.

Then again, she could just be too stupid to realize how poorly worded the law is.

[solvent90.livejournal.com]

All it takes is a complete and total disregard for the mental capacity of the people you're legislating.

*nod* Which is extra-special irony in an area of law - sexual offences - which is all about the individual dignity (=individual autonomy). Poorly worded, poorly thought out ... aagh. I don't know enough about US law to know if this makes sense, but surely this is a breach of human rights on several different levels? [freedom of expression/speech; freedom from age discrimination; the individual's right to control of his/her own image ...]

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

The US is pretty uptight about sex. This might just get passed because no one wants to take the political risk of voting against a law that toughens punishments for child abusers or that could be used to punish people who abuse the elderly or disabled.

[solvent90.livejournal.com]

*flail* That is very typical politician's reasoning; it could be used to punish abusers in the same way that a law that illegalised breathing would doubtless capture all kinds of murderers and rapists. (Or, closer to my home, in the same way that a law illegalising "glorifying terrorism" captures actual inciters to terrorism as well as anyone with a poster of the Dalai Lama or a copy of a Catholic book of martyrs]. Why oh why must politicians get involved in the actual drafting of legislation? It only ends badly.

[halleyscomet.livejournal.com]

They like the power?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I doubt this will get passed. It will be tabled and never discussed again, so that nobody has to vote "no" and face the wrath of the poorly informed.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I hope you won't take this amiss, and you're welcome to delete the comment -- but I have to say that the icon of the green Lady Liberty bending down a blindfolded Justice (who also looks as if her hands might be bound) is just a teeny bit disturbing to me, as if Justice isn't perhaps a willing participant in this embrace.

No metaphor about the relationship between liberty and justice implied, just my instinctive "eeeuw, is that *voluntary*????" reaction to the graphic.

[solvent90.livejournal.com]

Oh, interesting. I've always assumed, with that image, that Justice is blindfolded because Justice is always, iconically, blindfolded (and I think her hands aren't bound, she's just holding on to her scales as best she can): it's necessary to identify her as Justice. There's a bigger version here (http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-02-24/news/i-d-leave-the-country-but-my-wife-won-t-let-me/) where I think the image is clearer. It certainly looks very forceful but in that 1950s man-sweeping-woman-off-her-feet way, which I think is a bit tongue in cheek. Um. So to speak.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of that iconic Gone With the Wind poster, where Rhett Butler is kissing Scarlett O'Hara -- very much against her will -- on the road from Atlanta. It is interesting, isn't it, the ways we see things.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It reminded me of this photo:
http://photosthatchangedtheworld.com/the-kiss-times-square/

(And this discussion is really interesting.)

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Makes sense.

I think it's the blindfold that sends my mind chasing off in that other direction, even though I know it's part of Justice's regalia.

[yarram.livejournal.com]

on #1: Yay!!

on #2: I'd be tempted to say "WTF?", but my state is home to Michelle Bachman. She is her very own special brand of Batshit Crazy, complete with her own line of crazy-making Special Kool-Aid, and makes me embarrassed to live in MN. So, no, I'm not surprised at the stupidity some people are capable of spewing. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised. *sigh*

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

In regard to the Mass. bill, it doesn't outlaw sex, but rather photography, putting the elderly in the same class as the 16-to-18 year olds (in Mass.), namely that they can f**k but they can't be photographed.

In regard to my home state of Iowa, I stumbled upon this some hours after it was issued. The interesting bit is that the Iowa S.C. ruled in favor unanimously, which suggests to me that they wanted to close the issue forcefully. (How often does a supreme court rule unanimously on anything controversial?)

The conditions for a constitutional amendment in Iowa are fairly strict -- pass two successive Legislatures and then by the voters. Warm up your checkbooks to ensure that pro-S.S.M. candidates are elected in 2010!

[vass]

Also anyone with a disability. Any disability.