Did Florida accidentally ban sex?

The state legislature bans bestiality — but does the law's wording make sex between humans a misdemeanor, too?

A couple walks off into the sunset on a Florida beach.
(Image credit: Richard Hamilton Smith/CORBIS)

Florida legislators passed a law banning bestiality last week, but they might have been more restrictive than they thought, according to a population-genetics graduate student blogging as Southern Fried Scientist. His theory? The law bars people from having sex with "animals," so — since humans are animals — technically it will be misdemeanor, "effective Oct. 1, 2011, for anyone to have sex in Florida." Unless, in keeping with the wording of the law, they follow "accepted animal husbandry practices." Is there anything to this?

No, tell your grandparents to carry on as before: Florida has not banned sex, says Daniel Foster at National Review. "If you read the bill — and, if exhaustive clinical descriptions of the several methods of interspecies coitus is your thing, I highly recommend you do — you'll see that 'persons' are distinguished from 'animals' early and often." There is "absolutely zero reason" to think any judge would interpret this as anything but a ban on bestiality.

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