fayfreethinkers.com

Houston sex-toy sellers hail federal court's ruling
35-year-old Texas law that banned the items overturned by appeals court

Houston's adult bookstore backers Wednesday hailed a federal court's decision to overturn a 35-year-old state law that banned promotion or sale of sex toys. But the decision won't go into effect until the court issues its mandate in early March — long after the industry's lucrative pre-Valentine's Day season.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violates the privacy protections of the 14th Amendment.

What the judges wrote
"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its law to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the judges wrote in the 2-1 ruling. "This case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of of consensual private intimate conduct."

The judges alluded to Lawrence v. Texas, a Houston case that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the state's sodomy law in 2003.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5540395.html

Be sure to catch the late Molly Ivins' take on the ridiculous situation

here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYXUUsDGxkU

DAR
Well that's just fantastic.

The Molly Ivins clip, Dildo Diaries, is so good we played it at a meeting months ago.

D.

DOUG
I guess they told the legislature they could take their dildos and stick 'em where the sun don't shine.

And now it's legal...

DOUG
Sex aids are back in a big way. Now regular retailers are starting to put them on the shelf.

=========
See here.

Hustler magazine and Wal-Mart haven't had much in common over the years. After all, the megaretailer won't even carry Hustler's explicit publications. But now they have at least one area of overlap. As of this month, Wal-Mart will be selling Wet, a sexual lubricant that has been a staple for more than a decade at Hustler's adult product boutiques.

If you haven't heard of Wet or its cousins, like Astroglide, you probably haven't been exploring the "sexual health" section of your local drugstore lately.

The migration of what used to be called "marital aids" from specialty sex shops to the mainstream stores began about four years ago for Trigg Laboratories Inc., the company that makes Wet. "Since then, even the more conservative retailers have come over," says John Winning, vice president of sales for the Valencia, Calif., firm.

"Every retailer has a different line on what will be acceptable—and that line can move," says Winning. "For us it was also about getting them past the name. But once they see our sales, that doesn't last long."



...In addition to dozens of massage liquids, "warming gels," and lubricants in many flavors, you'll also find vibrators. Durex, an international condom maker with a U.S. base in Atlanta, began putting the Little Gem personal massager (a.k.a. vibrator) on drugstore shelves around the country in August of last year. Demurely packaged in a lavender frosted-plastic oval container, the purpose of the Little Gem is fairly ambiguous unless you read the fine print, or just guess that it's related to sex because it's right near all the lubricants. Out of context it could be some kind of exfoliating device—or maybe a fancy skin cream.

...Drugstores have been selling many of these products online for a decade or more. And it's a healthy market. Over-the-counter sales of lubricants (excluding Wal-Mart) hit $113 million in 2007, a 30.3 percent hike from the previous four-year period, according to Nielsen Strategic Planner.

Alabama
...In Alabama the laws take the ban one step further. All stores, including specialty stores, are barred from selling vibrators because of a 1998 law prohibiting distribution of devices that provide genital stimulation. Breaking the law is an offense that can bring up to a year in jail and a $10,000 fine. It's a penalty that rivals that for illegal gun ownership in some states.

Though for the moment the ban is not being enforced, Alabama's sex-shop owners are not standing passively by. Adult store owner Sherri Williams has sued on the grounds that the ban is unconstitutional. Her motto: "They are going to have to pry this vibrator from my cold, dead hand." So far it's been a losing battle. Last year the Supreme Court declined to hear the case pending further information. The decision leaves like-minded women in Alabama to do their vibrator shopping online or out of state, for now.

DAR
The mark-up on these products is fantastic. No wonder Wal-Mart wants in on some of the action.

And once again money trumps self-proclaimed morality for Wal-Mart. (Nothing like a little hypocrasy to make the bottom line look better.) The Molly Ivins clip was great.