N.H. Supreme Court: lesbian sex is not adultery

[Ladewig]

The New Hamshire Supreme Court has ruled in a 3-2 (?) decision that a woman having extramarital sex with another woman does not fall under the legal definition of adultery.

The court agreed with Robin Mayer, who represented herself in her appeal to the court: "My position is New Hampshire has no same-sex adultery. The 1791 adultery statute was meant to apply only to heterosexual intercourse, she said."


Story (http://www.cmonitor.com/stories/news/state2003/gayadultery_2003.shtml)

[Marc]

Your wife having lesbian sex is not adultery, it is a bonus! ;)

[Thanz]

Separation of church and state? We don't need no stinking separation of church and state.....

"Our task is to be sure we interpret the constitution and these laws in line with what people thought at the time," Justice Joseph Nadeau said.

[snip]

Justice James Duggan said that without a "bright line" defining prohibited sex acts, it will be very difficult to decide what kind of conduct constitutes adultery. When Jeanmarie Papelian, the lawyer for David Blanchflower, suggested that the Supreme Court embrace a New Jersey court ruling that defined adultery as any personal, intimate, extramarital sexual relationship, Duggan said: "This muddles up what ultimately has to be proven. I think the legislature wanted to keep this very narrow, so that there's not unnecessary prying into sex lives."

"The Ten Commandments say, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' It doesn't say, 'Thou shalt not have an intimate relationship with someone,' " Nadeau said.

[Ed]

So.........

If you have a gay marrage in MA and then move to NH your spouse can have gay sex and it not be adultory but if it happens in MA it is? Got it.

[Ladewig]

If you have a gay marrage in MA and then move to NH your spouse can have gay sex and it not be adultory but if it happens in MA it is? Got it.

Or. If you have a gay marriage and you go to the border and your extra-marrital partner is on the NH side of the border while you are on the Mass side of the border, then it is not adultery.

This stuff is weird enough that it won't be long before there is a country-western song about it.

[ImpyTimpy]

Originally posted by Marc
Your wife having lesbian sex is not adultery, it is a bonus! ;)

Correction, it's only a bonus if you can watch. If you can join in, it's a gold-mine.

:p

[Brown]

Justice James Duggan said that without a "bright line" defining prohibited sex acts, it will be very difficult to decide what kind of conduct constitutes adultery.
...
"The Ten Commandments say, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' It doesn't say, 'Thou shalt not have an intimate relationship with someone,' " [Justice Joseph] Nadeau said.
...
"But where do you find the line of sexual unfaithfulness?" [Justice Linda] Dalianis asked.Remarks like these make me wonder what the members of the court do in their spare time.

These sorts of observations would never have been tolerated from President Clinton, would they?

[pupdog]

In the movie "Hawaii" (based on Michener's book) a native had to ask Max von Sydow just exactly what sort of relations were banned by the prohibition against adultery--and then went on to enumerate all the many permutations.

[Mercutio]

Oddly enough, the papers here in NH have been reporting that NH will likely not recognize gay marriages from MA--apparantly, NH law specifically defines marriage as between a man and a woman. So, no same-sex adultery, but no same-sex marriage. I honestly think the NH legislators wish to ignore the existence of gays altogether. Yup, live free or die...