Just two weeks ago a federal appeals court struck down the old-fashioned law that made it illegal for Texans to sell (and thus buy) sex toys for sexual purposes (as opposed to, say, medical instruction). You also weren't allowed to own more than six devices, because such a collection would be considered promotion -- so you were screwed (or would that be weren't screwed?) if you just happened to like a vibrator on a Monday, a dildo on a Tuesday, a G-spotter on a Wed, and so on...
A few years ago we had talked to one sex shop owner who, for fear of getting in trouble with Big Brother, had lawyers draft up a legal document for customers to sign swearing that the dildo they just bought would be used for educational purposes only. As recently as 2003, a woman was arrested for selling marital aids to married people at a Tupperware-style sex toy party: a pair of cops actually went undercover posing as a married couple just looking to spice things up and they busted the Baptist mother of three! Charges were eventually dropped, but still: this is the 21st century, people!
Lawmakers finally figured that out in Texas, reasoning that the logic of the landmark Supreme Court case Lawrence and Garner v. Texas (the one that granted two adults of the same sex the right to engage in whatever consensual sex act their hearts desired behind closed doors) should be applied to people using sex toys behind closed doors as well. Guess we're going to have to edit out the Texas-bashing from our sex toy instructional video--but we're happy to do so.
It's only a matter of time before Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia do away with their bullshit obscenity laws, which are less about protecting the public from indecency and more about controlling people's private behavior. Here's to hoping they get with the program real soon.
In the meantime, you can celebrate Texas's newfound freedom over at JT's Stockroom, where they're having a Texas Independence Sale.
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