Ian (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lovingboth) wrote2003-04-03 01:41 pm
lovingboth) wrote2003-04-03 01:41 pm
Entry tags:
Sexual Offences Bill poll 4
The biggest row will be about clause 74, 'Sexual activity in public'.
It will be illegal to be sexual - that is have vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, or manual sex - in a public place when someone other than a person reasonably believed to be a willing observer could see it. So sex in certain clubs etc may well be confirmed as legal - it'll be a reasonable belief that someone in a such a space is a willing observer.
It will also be illegal to be sexual 'not in a dwelling' and blah blah blah.
So... sex in your garden = illegal if you know or are reckless whether someone other than a willing observer can see you.
But sex in your house, even with the curtains open and lights on = legal. Provided that you don't intend to cause alarm or distress - that'd probably be exposure, clause 70. (There are other laws - outraging public decency sort of stuff - that could apply, but the approach here is that they shouldn't be looking into your house!)
And, most controversial, sex in a closed toliet cubicle = legal.
[Poll #119977]
Oh, one side effect is that this will update statute law to confirm that male-male sex in the presence of other consenting adults is legal.
It will be illegal to be sexual - that is have vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, or manual sex - in a public place when someone other than a person reasonably believed to be a willing observer could see it. So sex in certain clubs etc may well be confirmed as legal - it'll be a reasonable belief that someone in a such a space is a willing observer.
It will also be illegal to be sexual 'not in a dwelling' and blah blah blah.
So... sex in your garden = illegal if you know or are reckless whether someone other than a willing observer can see you.
But sex in your house, even with the curtains open and lights on = legal. Provided that you don't intend to cause alarm or distress - that'd probably be exposure, clause 70. (There are other laws - outraging public decency sort of stuff - that could apply, but the approach here is that they shouldn't be looking into your house!)
And, most controversial, sex in a closed toliet cubicle = legal.
[Poll #119977]
Oh, one side effect is that this will update statute law to confirm that male-male sex in the presence of other consenting adults is legal.
no subject
Peers are queuing up to put ammendments to this clause. One lot want to specifically ban sex in toilets, and make being able to hear sex in a public place illegal.
Others want to insist you know you're being watched (as opposed to being reckless as to whether you are). Or delete the section on non-public out of doors spaces (eg gardens etc) entirely.
Oh and two peers want to confirm that prison cells are private spaces.
You've got time to lobby your favourite peers, as the next time they consider the bill will be the 10th - and I don't think they'll get around to this clause until the 28th.
you can't open the curtains wide, turn up the lights, and do a live sex show in the front window of your suburban house
In practice, I suspect they'd go back to a 1751 law and do you for keeping a disorderly house: "not regulated by the restraints of morality, and which is so conducted as to violate law and good order".