New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed historic legislation making it legal for men to cheat on their wives. Gov. Hochul signed the new bill into law on Friday legalizing adultery in the state.
The 117-year-old law that criminalized adultery said “a person is guilty of adultery when he engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”
For over a century men lived in fear of being arrested for soliciting working girls. The law encouraged men to go home to their wives rather than stop off at brothels and massage parlors.
Adultery was considered a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to three months in jail.
The New York State Senate called the law “outdated” and moved to strike it from the books.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine wrote the bill overturning the law. He said 13 people were arrested and charged under the law, while 5 people were convicted.
“If you look into the history of adultery laws, they generally were created as a means to control women, and very, very few men were ever charged or punished for their adultery, whereas many, many women were,” Paul Keable told UPI.
“And so, it’s not lost to me that it was a female governor in New York who struck down this law, because she more than likely saw the hypocrisy within it and that it just has no place in a modern state.”
“This is not an activist action by a governor,” he said. “This is just a simple recognition that society’s moved on since 100 years ago when that law was originally put on the books.”
Gov. Hochul signed the bill into law without comment on Friday.
Cheaters today: pic.twitter.com/jlz3Vm74ue
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