Wanker of the Day

This is the text of the unconstitutional law Virginia Attorney General Ken Kuccinelli wants to have reinstated.

§ 18.2-361. Crimes against nature; penalty.

A. If any person carnally knows in any manner any brute animal, or carnally knows any male or female person by the anus or by or with the mouth, or voluntarily submits to such carnal knowledge, he or she shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, except as provided in subsection B.

B. Any person who performs or causes to be performed cunnilingus, fellatio, anilingus or anal intercourse upon or by his daughter or granddaughter, son or grandson, brother or sister, or father or mother is guilty of a Class 5 felony. However, if a parent or grandparent commits any such act with his child or grandchild and such child or grandchild is at least 13 but less than 18 years of age at the time of the offense, such parent or grandparent is guilty of a Class 3 felony.

C. For the purposes of this section, parent includes step-parent, grandparent includes step-grandparent, child includes step-child and grandchild includes step-grandchild.

You'll notice Section A says "any person." It doesn't say "any unmarried person," or "any non-heterosexual person." So, according to the language of this terrible law, a wife giving her husband a blow job or a husband going down on his wife, activities they have every right to do as consenting adults, could be arrested for private, personal, nobody-else's-business sexual contact.

Also, needless to say, this law directly flouts the Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence vs. Texas.

There's something else that's peculiar about this, and I haven't seen anyone mention it. Section B has the standard boilerplate against incest and child molestation. However, if the victim is 13-17, the penalty is a Class 3 felony. According to this, Virginia felonies are ranked between 1 and 6, with penalties in descending order. Anyone else, including adults, is guilty of a Class 5.

Class 3 Felonies can have a punishable prison term of no less than five years but nor more than twenty years in a state facility. A fine of no more than one hundred thousand dollars is also possible.

Class 4 Felonies can have a prison term of no less than two years and no more than ten years in a state facility with a possible fine of no more than one hundred thousand dollars.

Class 5 Felonies can carry a prison sentence of no less than one year and no more than ten years. Also under the discretion of the court or the jury, confinement in a county jail for no more than twelve months is also possible with a fine of no more than twenty-five hundred dollars. An individual can be sentenced to one or both of these punishments.

So a perpetrator of molestation on a teenage victim could theoretically get a greater penalty than someone raping or molesting a small child.

What the hell is up with that? Is this just because there's greater possibility of pregnancy if the victim is a teenager? (Although the four acts banned here wouldn't actually result in a pregnancy.) Does Cuccinelli, or whoever wrote this boneheaded law, actually think a 13-year-old victim would suffer greater trauma than a 5-year-old one? That there are classes, and levels, of molestation victims, and one is more worthy of prosecution than another?

This law is just all-around stupid. It was also pushed because of Ken Cuccinelli's personal views, (and I would bet serious money those views are based on his religious beliefs) which he has absolutely no business foisting on the rest of us.

He declined to commit to a nondiscrimination policy against gays and lesbians observed by former Attorney General Bob McDonnell: “ My view is that homosexual acts, not homosexuality, but homosexual acts are wrong. They’re intrinsically wrong. And I think in a natural law based country it’s appropriate to have policies that reflect that. ... They don’t comport with natural law. I happen to think that it represents (to put it politely; I need my thesaurus to be polite) behavior that is not healthy to an individual and in aggregate is not healthy to society.”

I don't call many people nutjobs, but Ken Cuccinelli absolutely merits that designation. I feel sorry for Virginia residents. What an embarrassment.