FLORIDA: State Supreme Court To Define "Sexual Intercourse" Between Gay People

Via the Associated Press:

The Florida Supreme Court will consider the definition of sexual intercourse in a case involving a gay man charged with not letting a partner know he was HIV-positive. A lawyer for Gary Debaun is trying to have a charge dismissed under a 1986 law designed to prevent the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus. The law says it's illegal not to disclose an HIV infection before "sexual intercourse." Lawyer Brian Ellison argues that the definition applies only to traditional sex between a man and a woman — not oral or anal sex between two partners of any gender. Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Geldens says it is absurd to think the Legislature would enact a law to prevent the spread of HIV and not consider other forms of sexual activity.

More details from the case:

The case arose in Key West where Gary Debaun was charged in 2011 with falsely telling a man he did not have the virus before they engaged in sex acts. Monroe County Circuit Judge Wayne Miller dismissed the case, saying state law defined “sexual intercourse” as between men and women. The state appealed, arguing that the 1986 law Debaun violated, which requires HIV-infected people to inform their partners, was intended to cover all sex acts, both homosexual and heterosexual, even if it did not precisely define the nature of sexual intercourse. After hearing arguments, the seven justices usually take months to issue rulings. The court has dealt with sexual definitions before, in 1971 striking down an 1868 statute that criminalized “the abominable and detestable crime against nature with either mankind or with beast” in the case of two gay man who faced up to 20 years in jail.