6/23/2005 10:10:00 AM by Rob

Age of consent

Not that it makes a hill of beans difference in my own personal life, but I was under the distinct impression that the "age of consent" was a federal thing, and that it was 18 in these here Yoo-nited States.

Not according to this table:

Alabama 16
Alaska 16
Arizona 18
Arkansas 16
California 18
Colorado 15
Connecticut 16
D.C. 16
Delaware 16
Florida 16
Georgia 16
Hawaii 16
Idaho 16
Illinois 17
Indiana 16
Iowa 14
Kansas 16
Kentucky 16
Louisiana 17
Maine 16
Maryland 16
Massachusetts 16
Michigan 16
Minnesota 16
Mississippi 16
Missouri 14
Montana 16
Nebraska 17
Nevada 16
New Hampshire 16
New Jersey 16
New Mexico 17
New York 17
North Carolina 16
North Dakota 18
Ohio 16
Oklahoma 16
Oregon 18
Pennsylvania 16
Rhode Island 16
South Carolina 14
South Dakota 16
Tennessee 18
Texas 17
Utah 16
Vermont 16
Virginia 18
Washington 16
West Virginia 16
Wisconsin 18
Wyoming 16
Military 16

What this does mean is an easing of the Sloth Moratorium on Comments about Young Girls.

Like say, for instance, I wanted to, um, wax poetic about the womanly charms of a Hilary Duff. I suspect she lives in Cali, where you are not legal tender until 18 years of age. If, however, she was living in Texas, the state of her birth, then I would have no trouble at all expressing my true feelings about young Hilary, since she currently is 17-something, and that's ok down in Texas.

If, surprisingly, a little nipper like a Renee Olstead was kickin' it in Iowa, then with their super-sexy 14 year age limit, I could sit back and luxuriate about the kind of stress relief that would come with, um, hanging out with her.

Or should the rule apply to the state in which I currently sit? Like, would it be ok for me to sit in Iowa and gawk at Renee, but here in Illinois, where I sit, she's still two years too young to consider, so I just better cut it?

Of course, these laws most handle kid-to-kid relations. The rules get much different when one of the dancers is an old over-21 fart like us.

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