In these
dark times of sex toys, there is some hope... I have heard of
12-step sex toy groups getting started that will help people
to repress any desires they may have to enjoy their God given
sexuality and understand that it is important for ALL of their
constitutional rights to be infringed upon. After all, it seems
the constitution is really just for show in the U.S., we really
don't use it these days.
If you have
NOT caught on to my extreme sarcasm by now, you may be on the
wrong web site. The news is out, without comment, justices of
the Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that said Alabama
had a right to police the sale of devices that can be sexually
stimulating. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the challenge
on behalf of merchants and users seeking to overturn the 1998
state law. Yep, you heard that right a law in 1998 not 1888!
Just
Because It Is A Law Does Not Make It Right Or Abide By Our Constitution-
Every day
things that bring harm to people are legally sold in the U.S.
We sell tobacco, alcohol, guns, knives, and even prescription
drugs like Vioxx that we know are deadly. Yet because sexuality
is so often thought of as dirty and shameful, when in reality
is is a beautiful part of who we are, anything associated with
it is considered potentially obscene.
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In
the case
of Sherri Williams, she is fighting to keep her lingerie
and adult toy shops open. Her
Attorney, Mike Fees and The American Civil Liberties Union
has played a key role in fighting the battle for the freedom
to manufacture, distribute, sell, buy and use adult toys
in the privacy of your own home.
Yet
the Supreme Court has turned a deaf ear to the matter.
Sherry is still battling the courts and fighting for all
of our rights to have and enjoy sex toys. She is a woman
to be admired and supported!
Update
February 2007
Appeals
Court Upholds Alabama's Ban on Adult Toys
WHNT.com
91%
Oppose Sex Toy Law
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 |
One
of Two Stores That Sherry Williams
Is Fighting To Keep Open
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It
Happens in Texas Too
As many
of you know Joanne Webb was arrested in Burleson, TX in an undercover
sting operation by two narcotics officers for selling two dildos
through her homebased, Tupperware style, sex toy, side business.
She has
endured over a year of absolute upheaval from the case by being
made to feel like a woman wearing a scarlet letter in her own
town. She fought to stay out of trouble with 1 year in prison
and $4,000.00 in fees on the line. Yet the case was dropped
a few months ago, most likely from the sheer embarrassment that
it caused the district attorney's office when Joanne brought
international attention to it through media appearances in newspapers,
radio interviews and on television. A victory and also a problem
because now that people know who she is... she can't get a job
as a teacher.
She is now
pondering whether to proceed with a law suit against the state
of Texas for their current law against selling sex toys while
educating customers about them as being unconstitutional. She
has until November 2005 to decide and is currently examining
whether or not to proceed.
Having been
an advocate of Joanne during her troubles with this Texas law,
we became friends and I found myself talking with her this week
on this topic. A few points were made in that conversation that
I would like to share...
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Freedom
From Religion
Joanne
was doing a radio interview last week with a Rabbi and
Minister who discussed the sale of sex toys. The Rabbi
said it was fine if she is selling it only to couples,
while the Minister said that she was wrong to sell any
of them for any reason and was not Christian for doing
so.
Joanne
provided a solid debate with them as she explained that
there is nothing wrong with an individual using sex toys
as a couple or by themselves. She also told the Minister
that she was indeed a Christian, but perhaps not one that
would attend his church.
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Joanne
Webb
|
What I
said to Joanne about that was that one could go around and around
on the whole debate of religion's role regarding sex toys. This
is because there so many different beliefs in even just one
religion such as Christianity, let alone other religions. The
real issue here is that religion should not play
a role in these decisions at all under the law.
The constitution
assures us freedom of religion which, also must be seen as freedom
FROM religion. It should not be a matter of what someone thinks
about sex toys based on their personal religious beliefs because
the FACT is that sex toys do not cause harm. They should be
protected under the same grounds that protect our right to privacy
in any adult's own bedroom. Whether it is consenting adults
or one masturbating, it should be a right to buy, sell and use
sex toys in any state.
Update-
2-14-08
NEW ORLEANS,
La. — A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in New Orleans has overturned a Texas law from the 1970s that
makes it a crime to promote or sell sex toys in the state.
The 2-1
opinion referenced the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision in
Lawrence v. Texas that struck down a Texas law that prohibited
private consensual sex among people of the same gender. That
ruling created a broad if undefined constitutional right to
sexual privacy.
"Whatever
one might think or believe about the use of these [sex toy]
devices," Justice Thomas M. Reavley wrote in the 5th Circuit
opinion, "government interference with their personal and private
use violates the Constitution.
Selling
Sex Toys Does Not Necessarily Make You Rich
Many people
think that those who sell sex toys have tons of money pouring
in because "sex sells." Thus, people assume that those
who are arrested for selling sex toys do not need help financially
or in any other capacity. I have news for you my friends...
it doesn't work that way.
Joanne is
like many Americans just scraping to get by each month. Because
she was a teacher before this whole fiasco, she is looking for
a new job as one outside of the backward town that tried to
jail her. However, no one will hire her because of her ties
to marital aids. Her job selling sex toys for Passion Parties
brings in little income and she has been forced to go without
health insurance for her children for over 9 months now.
The legal
fund we started to help her and those in her situation did not
get one contribution. Not a single one. People like Joanne,
Sherri and others fight these battles with out much support
for your right to have sex toys and education about them and
every day I worry if I will be the next in line to be prosecuted
by some backward law.
I don't
worry because I am knowingly breaking any laws. I am a good
person with deep integrity and I have gone above and beyond
what I know to be the law. Yet, everyone knows that there are
not laws protecting adult businesses and if government
officials wants to get you, they will find a way.
Bottom line
is that the people like Joanne and myself endure the high levels
of stress doing what we do... not because it has made us rich,
rather because we believe that women and men should feel empowered
about their sexuality and embrace it as a positive part of who
they are. If we wanted to make a quick buck, there would be
much easier ways than to risk arrests or be made out to be some
community whore because you teach sexuality and have no shame
in selling the tools of sex toys for people like you to have
a good sex life.
Think
That It's Just Alabama & Texas?
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SEVEN
states currently ban the sale of Adult Toys (Internet
sales do not apply so far), but with the 11th Districts
recent decision in Williams vs. Alabama we can expect
that number to grow substantially and may very well apply
to web site sales. State legislators and Courts use recent
case decisions to establish precedence.
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States
Outlawing Sex Toys |
The
portion of the Alabama Law currently being scrutinized:
"It
shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly distribute, possess
with intent to distribute, or offer or agree to distribute obscene
material or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily
for the stimulation of human genital organs..."
Sherry
Williams had this to say of the law "In a state where you
have the right to buy a gun, you no longer have the right to
buy a vibrator! While there is nothing dangerous about a vibrator,
nor do they pose any harm, the state of Alabama feels it is
necessary to remove every last one of them from my store front
and close down the business I worked 11 years to build."
Sherry also
had this to say "...It's hard to rationalize rubber products
as being obscene. Does a man look in the mirror and consider
himself obscene?"
Why
Does This Happen?
Below
are five main reasons that sex toys upset people enough for
them to want to make it illegal and why they are not rational
below-
1)
The Independent Woman Factor
Women are often thought to no longer desire men once they have
tasted the delectable delights of sex toys that vibrate and
rotate. The
bottom line is that toys will never be able to compete with
human contact. Feeling desired and having a sexual connection
with ourselves and partner is key for sexual satisfaction.
Think
about it, when a woman uses a sex toy is she fantasizing about
a lover or is she fantasizing about a piece of vibrating plastic?
Women want and desire a partner and nothing that rotates or
vibrates can take away that inevitable desire.
2)
Men's Penis Size Insecurity
Men may worry that they are not as satisfying or as "good"
as a sex toy because of penis size. That
point is simply not an issue for women when determining who
they want as a partner. We women pass babies through our vaginas
so what in the world would make anyone think that our pleasure
was contingent on size? Trust me, while sometimes women enjoy
the extra girth or angle that some dildos provide... heterosexual
women need, want and desire your penis as it is our way of enjoying
the warmth of human sexuality and experiencing your desire for
us!
3)
Concern By Homophobe's That Sex Toys Are Used By Homosexuals
And Thus A Homosexual Behavior
Some may think that lesbians use dildos as do gay men for anal
sex and thus it would make someone linked to being homosexual
by using a sex toy. This is an absurd argument in that even
if you are disturbed by homosexuals, you are certainly not risking
changing your sexual orientation simply by using a sex toy.
That would be as silly as saying that using a lubricant might
cause the same feared outcome.
Sex
is how you experience it. Let me repeat that as it is an important
point. Sex is how YOU experience it. You are what you
are and nothing not a sex toy or anything else can make you
change your sexual orientation.
4)
Concern That Use of Sex Toys Will Lead To Illegal Behavior
I have certainly heard those who are over react and think that
using sex toys can lead to incest, bestiality and prostitution.
However, that is more ridiculous than saying that drinking a
cup of coffee will lead to your becoming a cocaine addict. Millions
of people use sex toys and if for some crazy reason they were
partaking in incest, bestiality or prostitution, it would not
be because a vibrator led them do it!
5)
Ignorance
Fear of the unknown is certainly a factor here. Many people
simply aren't sure how their sexuality works let alone how to
use a sex toy. They may even fear that people would find them
morally reprehensible if it were discovered that they used them.
That
is why the law in Texas stating that one cannot sell sex toys
and educate consumers on how they work is so terribly irresponsible.
People are often so ignorant or confused about their own sexuality
and it seems that ideally it would be someone's responsibility
to themselves to better understand their health as well as their
sexual health. That is why programs that promote abstinence
only education are damaging as it only leads to further ignorance,
confusion, poor self esteem and fear of healthy sex.
Sex
toys should be as commonplace as ice cream. While ice cream
gives pleasure it does not even have the health benefits that
sexual release provides. Sexuality should be accepted as normal
and healthy. Instead, due to a great deal of fear based religious
teachings, we find ourselves rejecting the very beautiful, God
given sexuality that is in us all.
Where
Is The Outrage!?!
Who
is standing up for the right of being able to make, sell and
use sex toys? Mostly, it comes down to the few that have already
been arrested for it outside of groups like the ACLU and The
Free Speech Coalition.
What
bothers me more than the backward fundamentalist types that
think that sex is a dirty thing, is the apathetic stance that
most people take. Why are people not more outraged that their
freedoms are being taken away from them? I bet you that if anyone
tried to ban guns in Alabama we would have another civil war;
because apparently guns don't cause harm, vibrators do. What
the hell is going on?
Have
we all lost our minds, do we really value violence over sexuality?
It appears that everything that is going on from censoring nipples
on TV but allowing gruesome violent footage is pointing in that
direction! What sick people we are when we value harm to
another human being, but see the pleasure of one obscene.
Dr.
Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association had
said "Because of the addictive nature of pornography, the pornographers
know that if they capture the children, they will have customers
for many, many years." Lumping anyone selling adult products
in the category of pornography includes businesses like mine...
and I have news for ya Don... it does not even occur to us...
it is your sick mind that conjures up these ridiculous fantasies.
No
sex toy business I know of is marketing to kids... we are very
careful to sell to adults only. Unlike the sick monsters many
fundamentalists try and make us out to be... we care about children,
many of us have them, and find the types of accusations that
we market to them outrageous, insulting and disgusting.
We
simply want to be able to provide sexual education and products
to adults as it is our right under the Constitution of the United
States as sexual adults to have access to such information and
products if we desire it.
We
want to be honest about what we are selling to adults rather
than having to lie and abide by ridiculous laws telling customers
that the g-spot vibrator we sell is really a novelty and is
not really for sexual activity... wink, wink.
We
want the world to see that sex is beautiful, natural and should
not be left to the only acceptable sex as a man on top, only
when married to procreate and under no other circumstances.
To
The Backward Lawmakers
We
challenge your laws against oral and anal sex, we challenge
your laws against sex toys and we challenge your laws against
adult entertainment. We challenge you to live by the constitution
of the United States of America!
War
On Sex Toys
