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.

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

One of Two Stores That Sherry Williams Is Fighting To Keep Open

 

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...

 

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.

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?

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.

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!

 

Take A Stand For Sexual Rights- NASAE.org

We are starting an emergency assistance program to help support those charged with crimes related to being in the field of sexuality, and for those of you who aren't... you are customers of them... so this affects you too!

We must protect and assist those who provide sexual health services and products to ensure the rights and empowerment of adults desiring to be sexually educated and afforded the freedom of purchasing and using sexual books, videos and aids.