a couple of days old...not sure if it made the rounds
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In Defense of the Lewd
A pending law in Louisiana would send people who have sex in public to jail. Our columnist thinks lawmakers should stay out of our bedrooms?even if our bedrooms are in the streets of New Orleans
LAST MONTH, THE Louisiana House of Representatives easily passed a bill that stiffens existing penalties for people who engage in public sex. The Senate is expected to pass the bill this week and the governor will likely sign it into law days later.
All this legislative activity is a result of a crusade by a camcorder-carrying Christian conservative who videotaped what he calls public ?orgies? during last year?s Southern Decadence festival, the annual ?Gay Mardi Gras? that takes place on Bourbon Street around Labor Day.
Rev. Grant Storms lived up to his surname by sending copies of the tape to lawmakers. Newspapers have described this tape as a ?smoking gun? of sexual deviance?a 15-minute loop that captures the most intimate sex acts being carried out for all to see.
It?s powerful stuff, apparently. After seeing the tape, Rep. Danny Martiny, a Republican from New Orleans suburb, drafted a bill that would increase the penalty for public sex?which is already illegal, not that you can tell sometimes on Bourbon Street. Specifically, Martiny?s bill requires a mandatory 10-day jail sentence to anyone engaging in ?vaginal, oral or anal? sex for the ?purpose of gaining the attention of the public.? Martiny admitted that his bill doesn?t cover ?people having drunken sex in the backseat of a car? (hear, hear!) and it certainly doesn?t cover women who flash their breasts during the Mardi Gras celebrations (had he banned that, millions of people would have been compelled to boycott Louisiana, just as African-Americans shunned South Carolina over the Confederate flag controversy a few years ago).
Of course, Martiny?s bill is a no-brainer if you?re a legislator?the public morals equivalent of a non-binding resolution showing ?support? for our troops. When the bill was up for a hearing before Martiny?s committee, no one spoke against it. Not even the ACLU bothered to put itself on the record of favoring public sex (which is why I?m burning my ACLU card as soon as I finish writing this sentence).
The way I see it, any infringement on public sex is an infringement on my right as an American to watch public sex! Besides, isn?t busting people for public sex on Bourbon Street a little like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500 or blaming earned runs on the Mets pitching staff? Doesn?t New Orleans exist as America?s safety valve, the place where otherwise straight-laced people can go to witness things that they?d never see at the mall or on Main Street, to stay out late, to drink too much or maybe even?oh, I don?t know?have public sex with a stranger while other strangers shout encouragement?
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http://www.msnbc.com/news/921171.asp#BODY