Shopping Advice 
No Dildos for Alabama
Yesterday the Eleventh Circuit court held that Alabama’s ban on sex toys is constitutional. On Valentine’s Day of all days! The ruling does so on the grounds “that Alabama has an interest in preserving “public morality” against the sale of such devices.” This ban does not prohibit owning sex toys or using them, just (just!) buying them anywhere in the state of Alabama.
This is the same circuit that struck down Lawrence v Texas (the anti-sodomy law). Surprised? I was too. The court said that Lawrence was all about “private” activity between sexual partners whereas the sex toy ban is “public, commercial activity.” The decision actually said that selling sex toys is more like prostitution and has nothing to do with private, consensual sex.
Although it’s true that selling sex toys is commercial (most business do want to make at least some money), it’s about so much more than that and the items that people are buying affect their private lives in ways that are wholly different than tissues or toothbrushes. I have never been for the regulation of things used privately and this is no exception.
Live in Alabama? Babeland can send you all the sex toys you want in discreet boxes with an easy and simple return policy. We’ve got a lot of advice to help you pick out what you need, even if you can’t come into our stores.
Link (via Feministing)
Thanks, BoingBoing for the great image!
February 15th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
In Arizona you can’t own more than two dildos, and in Dallas Texas you just can’t own “realistic” ones. I’ve also heard that Texas has limits on the number you can own…but i couldn’t find any numbers that agreed. anyone know?
February 16th, 2007 at 7:28 am
From Texas:
An adult bookstore employee in El Paso, Texas, sued the state after his arrest for showing two undercover officers a device shaped like a penis and telling the female officer the device would arouse and gratify her.
The employee, Ignacio Sergio Acosta, says a Texas law outlawing the manufacture, marketing or dissemination of an “obscene device” including those shaped like sex organs is unconstitutional because it prevents individuals from using such devices, violating their right to sexual privacy.
Colorado, Kansas and Louisiana have held such laws unconstitutional, while Georgia, Mississippi and Texas have upheld them, said Acosta’s lawyer in urging the Supreme Court to take the case.
And Mississippi
Adam and Eve and ZJ Gifts LLC, the Memphis-based owner of Christal’s chain of adult stores, sued the state of Mississippi in 2000. The company, which closed an adult store in Southaven in 2001, claimed the law barring the sale of certain adult devices was unconstitutional.
A Hinds County judge ruled in 2003 that state law does not extend the right to privacy to the commercial sale of sexual devices. The Mississippi high court said there is no fundamental right of access to buy sexual devices.
The justices said while a federal court had found a similar Alabama law was unconstitutional, other courts — including ones in Georgia, Louisiana and Texas — have rejected attempts to expand the right to privacy to include the commercial sale of sex toys.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Apparently if you own six or more dildos in the state of Texas it is seen as “intention to distribute” and is therefore illegal. However, if you own 5 or less it is perfectly legal. It is the actual purchase and distribution of sex toys that is seen as unsavory.
May 5th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I stay in Alabama. Can I buy it online legally ?
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:48 am
[...] To read more about the ban, check out my previous post. [...]
October 4th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Phalligator: “In Arizona you can’t own more than two dildos” — not true. There was an attempt to pass an anti-dildo law in the mid-nineties that would have banned possession of five or more. It was laughed out of the legislature, and the female legislator who proposed it was not re-elected.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Actually, it wasn’t the mid-nineties–it was the late eighties, around the time Evan Mecham was impeached as governor of Arizona…
October 5th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Alman, you can most definitely buy sex toys online legally! That right has not been taken away from you. It’s more that shops like Babeland can’t open their fabulous stores in Alabama, and the shops that exist there now are being shut down.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Apparently if you own six or more dildos in the state of Texas it is seen as “intention to distribute” and is therefore illegal. However, if you own 5 or less it is perfectly legal. It is the actual purchase and distribution of sex toys that is seen as unsavory.