You Know It When It Happens: Florida Supreme Court To Define Sexual Intercourse
By Robert Gehl, February 1, 2015.
The Florida Supreme Court is about to answer a rather interesting question: What is the definition of sexual intercourse?
The question comes from a 2011 case against Gary Debaun, a gay man who is HIV-positive. The state has a law that requires HIV-infected people to inform sexual partners they have the disease. He did not tell one of his male sexual partners.
Debaun’s attorney asked a circuit court judge to dismiss the charges because state law defines “sexual intercourse” as between a man and a woman.
Briefs in the case go into extensive detail about court decisions and laws dating back decades and dealing with issues such as venereal disease, incest and rape.
But attorneys for the state wrote that the intent of the law in Debaun’s case is clear and urged the Supreme Court to uphold the ruling by the 3rd District Court of Appeal.
“The purpose of the statute was to criminalize knowingly exposing another person to HIV and AIDS through sexual intercourse without first advising that person,” the Attorney General’s Office argued in an August brief. “The statute applies to anyone, male or female, who may expose their partner through sexual intercourse, even if that sexual intercourse includes an act other than the penetration of the female sexual organ by the male sexual organ. It is not the sexual act that the Legislature meant to criminalize, but knowingly exposing one’s sex partners to HIV and AIDS.”
Debaun’s attorney, however, argued in a May brief that Florida’s laws have long defined sexual intercourse as involving men and women.
“The Florida Legislature, and this court, have always identified [filtered word]-vaginal union as ‘sexual intercourse’ and distinguished it from all other sexual contact,” the brief said. “Neither this court, nor the Legislature, has ever said otherwise. The plain meaning of the term is therefore clear and unambiguous: ‘Sexual intercourse’ as used in (the section of law in the Debaun case) does not refer to homosexual acts or oral sex.”
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