Sexx Laws: Kansas high court rejects harsher treatment of illegal gay sex

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday unanimously struck down a state law that punished underage sex more severely if it involved homosexual acts.

The court said "moral disapproval" of such conduct is not enough to justify the different treatment...

... The case involved an 18-year-old man, Matthew R. Limon, who was found guilty in 2000 of performing a sex act on a 14-year-old boy and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Had one of them been a girl, state law would have dictated a maximum sentence of 15 months.

Even in Kansas, there are but the few sane among them.

I'm tempted to launch into my tirade about the sense of underage sex laws, since I don't particularly see why a 14-year old is mature enough to consent to sex with another 14-year-old, but is not mature enough to consent to an 18-year-old.

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't particularly think it's a good idea for 14-year-olds to be screwing around with 18-year-olds OR with other 14-year-olds. But, if consensual, should it be illegal? Should a high school senior go to jail for having sex with a freshman partner?

I don't advocate an age-limitless sexual free-for-all. But I do think current laws do, in particular instances, punish people who have not done anything for which the government should be able to hold them accountable.

No one should be punished by the government for having consensual sex with someone who is intellectually capable of giving consent.

Of course, defining such an intellectual capability would be a legal conundrum as long as pricks like Rick Santorum walk the earth who would inevitably demand that only married heterosexuals capable of reproduction are intellectually capable of consenting to woman-on-bottom-only (don't even THINK about a clitoral orgasm) intercourse, and only once a month twenty-four hours before the speculated moment of ovulation.

But in my fantasy bullshitless society, 'intellectual capacity to consent,' seems a pretty reasonable criteria after reasonable precedent has been set.

NB: if you get the category subject heading, Courtney will bake you cookies, I'm sure.