With exquisite timing, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the infamous Texas law banning the sale of vibrators and other “sex toys”.
In its decision Tuesday, the appeals court cited Lawrence and Garner v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 opinion that struck down bans on consensual sex between same-sex couples.
“Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct,” the appeals judges wrote. “The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence.”
The Texas attorney general’s office, which represented the Travis County district attorney in the case, has not decided whether to appeal, said agency spokesman Tom Kelley.
One almost wants the Texans to appeal, in which case we can watch the hard-core federalists on the Supreme Court (Scalia and company) defend the right of a state to ban sex toys.
I don’t make these recommendations often, but in the spirit of the day, let me suggest that if you’re interested in buying some fun toys for you, your partner, or anyone else, you spend your dollars on a company that gives back to the community. Happily, there are many women-owned companies with strong feminist leanings, but let me recommend just two (not necessarily
work-safe):
Smitten Kitten
I’m familiar with the latter company; back in the 1980s, long before the internet, they had a thriving mail-order business. They also had a few folks affiliated with their San Francisco-based store who did some educational work in the community. When I was a “Peer Sexuality Outreach” coordinator at Cal in around 1986, we had a woman come in from Good Vibrations to talk to dorm residents about sex toys. She gave a famous primer on quiet vibrators (and other techniques) that could be used while one’s roommates were sleeping, and she left even those of us who thought ourselves to be oh-so sophisticated slack-jawed and blushing.
From Midland to Marshall, Cactus to Corpus Christi, let there be rejoicing in the Lone Star state. And a run on AA and AAA batteries.
UPDATED: There’s a popular perception that sex toys are incompatible with Christian marriage. If you want to buy your “marital aids” from an evangelical-owned and operated company, check out the good people at Book22. There’s also a Book22 blog. Here’s an excerpt from the blog that gives a hint as to the “unique mission” they perform:
A couple waits to be intimate until after they are married as part of God’s plan. They find out that they are physically incompatible with the husband having a smaller than average genital size. There is frustration and confusion and even a sense of desperation of how to make the most of the situation. We get the anonymous email asking if there is any products out there that can help increase the wife’s feeling during intercourse.
I do not know many (any?) men who would be comfortable sharing this information with someone face to face let alone someone they know. So it has worked well that they can write us and ask for direction since they do not know us and will never have to meet us face to face- it is completely anonymous and I think that is why it is working so well.
In case you are reading this post and are wondering if there is help for this type of issue- there is! Please just write us and we would be happy to offer some suggestions that have worked for other customers.
Bless their hearts. Though my theology of sex is considerably more liberal than that espoused by the operators of Book22, I honor their outreach to a community traditionally wary of the erotic industry. At Book22, they make the case that though genital intimacy ought to be confined to marriage, pleasure is part and parcel of God’s design. And they acknowledge the obvious, which is that sometimes, achieving maximum pleasure requires both knowledge and a wee bit of mechanical assistance.
Lauren F. Winner wrote in her book Real Sex that vibrators are fine with God. With that, I took a sigh of relief. LOL!
Yeah, it’s not clear to me how Winner arrived at that conclusion, but to come to any other would be indefensible.
But they did not do that for alabama . they still on the books. nothing like the real thang
Re: Book 22 — you couldn’t make that up. Priceless. I have thousands of parodies running through my head but I will forbear.
When next we gather for veggie burritos, Steve, you’ll have to share. Your parodies, that is, not the sex toys.
I’m not longer quite as afraid of Texas as I once was. Hurrah!
This is good news. Now if we can just get the courts to strike down the laws against sex workers. Get the government out of everybody’s bedroom!