New Hampshire, neighbor to now the only two states that permit civil unions between gay couples, has decreed that gay sex doesn’t count.
David Blanchflower attempted to divorce his wife Sian on the grounds that she had cheated on him – with another woman, Robin Mayer.
A New Hampshire Family Court Justice, John Peter Cyr, ruled that the legal definition of adultery should encompass same-gender sexual relations and granted the divorce to Mr. Blanchflower earlier this year. The ruling was appealed, and the case made it to the state’s Supreme Court. On Nov 7, the judges ruled that this is not a case of adultery.
Bay Windows, a northeast newspaper dedicated to gay and lesbian issues, reports that N.H. divorce laws do not define adultery. Instead, the five Supreme Court judges turned to the Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, which defines adultery as “sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband.”
The high court also cited case law from the 1800s in which criminal adultery was defined as “intercourse from which spurious issue may arise.”
“As ‘spurious issues'” – meaning illegitimate birth – “can only arise from intercourse between a man and a woman, criminal adultery could only be committed with a person of the opposite gender,” the court concluded, states Bay Windows.
“The modern definition of adultery needs to be redefined, “said senior Phillip Wright, who is from New Hampshire.
Sex, apparently, is not just vaginal intercourse these days.
States including New Jersey, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida have all redefined adultery to include homosexual sex. A N.J. court said that adultery occurs when a spouse engages in a “personal, intimate sexual relationship with any other person, irrespective of the specific sexual acts performed, the marital status, or the gender of the third party,” Foxnews.com reports.
The Associated Press relates that the court’s rationale behind the decision was that they “did not want the New Hampshire courts to step onto the slippery slope of defining which sex acts outside of intercourse might amount to adultery,” the court said.
“This standard would permit a hundred different judges … to decide just what individual acts are so sexually intimate as to meet the definition.”
In New Hampshire, adultery is one of a handful of reasons that a court can use to grant an at-fault divorce. This affects the settlement between the parties, and with Ms. Blanchflower not at fault, Mr. Blanchflower will be forced to file for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences – with neither party at fault.
The case has been in the news off and on since the petition was filed. Foxnews.com carries a story in its archives from April 23 explaining that Mayer pointed out the oversight in N.H. law, believing them to be biased against homosexuals. Mayer is taking advantage of the loophole to withdraw from the bitter divorce case. She is named as a third party in the suit.
“There is law, and then there is justice,” said Wright. “Just because [Blanchflower] didn’t break the law doesn’t mean that her husband is receiving justice.”
Sophomore Jenna Neason from Georgia, who is Vice-President of Guilford PRIDE, agrees. “In light of the recent law abolishing sodomy laws across the nation, it seems like courts are finding new ways to discriminate against homosexuals,” she said.
“They’re saying that it’s okay for [gays] to have sex, but now they’re saying it doesn’t count.