New Georgia Obscenity Law Could Ban Certain Condoms And Lubes

A new obscenity ordinance in Georgia prohibits the sale of “any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs,” which could extend to banning ribbed condoms and certain lubes.

Violation of the ordinance can lead to six months in jail and a $1000.

The South—or at least, certain lawmakers there—has never taken kindly to sex toys, the selling of which is banned in several states. (One case, that dragged on for nine years, challenging such a law in Alabama made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in October 2007, who declined to hear the appeal, thus upholding the original law banning the sale of sex toys.) However, this new ordinance, which was passed unanimously in Coweta County, Georgia on Monday, illustrates just how dangerous regulating obscenity can be, as the language leaves tons of room for interpretation.

It’s bad enough that people in these states can’t legally buy tools intended solely for pleasure, but banning the sale of anything that “stimulates human genitals” is a straight-up encroachment of civil liberties. The Newnan Times-Herald, a local paper in Coweta County, reported that this new ordinance could affect the sale of ribbed condoms (the kind that’s infamously designated for her pleasure) and lubricants with warming and cooling affects, not to mention the ever-growing business of at-home adult-themed novelty parties. The shitty thing is that we’re fairly certain that the holy rollers and misogynists that are so concerned with regulating how women stimulate their genitals aren’t nearly as strident when it comes to the sale of Viagra and other drugs that treat erectile dysfunction.