This Mexican City Just Legalized Public Sex (Well, Unless Anyone Complains)
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If you’re into public cruising and exhibitionism, you might wanna move down to the Mexican city of Guadalajara, where city officials just revamped the laws to allow public sex … unless someone complains. Officials say this new Guadalajara public sex law will allow local police to focus on actual crime rather than seeking out and punishing people who are simply too poor to afford a hotel room.
The modification to Article 14 of Guadalajara’s Bylaws of Good Government now reads, “Having sexual relations or committing acts of exhibitionism of a sexual nature in public places, vacant lots, inside vehicles or in private locations in public view will be considered administrative offenses, as long as a citizen requests police intervention.”
Some local citizens have complained that the Guadalajara public sex law represents an erosion in public morals, worrying the law could potentially create an uptick in pedophilia and rape cases.
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In 2017 urban planner Jen Roberton wrote an article based on her research, which concluded that “public sex doesn’t represent a public safety issue and communities overreact to its presence.” Roberton pointed out that much public sex occurs at times when children aren’t present.
“An effective way forward,” Roberton says, “involves planning that balances the needs of [public space] users who do not wish to see explicit sexual acts with the equally essential needs of queer people to have spaces to express their sexuality, in which they will not be traumatized and violated.”
Meanwhile in America, just late last month, Florida police officers raided an adult sex shop called Pleasure Emporium and arrested 13 men for the crime of having consensual sex inside a private business.
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On top of that, Miami newspapers released mugshots, names and addresses of the arrested men even though they were only charged with misdemeanors and even though the newspapers in questions don’t bother treating other misdemeanors the same way — a form of homophobic and sex-phobic public shaming that can potential ruin men’s reputations and has even driven one man in a similar case to commit suicide.
