Nov. 24 (UPI) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has been married for 40 years, signed a bill into law Friday that overturns a 117-year-old ban on adultery — a move praised by those who said the seldom-used law could be used to target women.
Under the law, it was a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail for engaging in “sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”
Patrick Hirsch, a wealthy railroad contractor, and a woman named Ruby Yeargin were the first people to be charged under the law in September 1907, The New York Times reported at the time.
Hirsch’s wife hired a private detective, fearing her husband was having an affair, and the couple were detained at Yeargin’s home where they were ordered to put their clothes on after begging police not to arrest them. They were ultimately released after paying the fine.
But the law was rarely used over the years. The last known case was in 2010 when local police in the town of Batavia charged a 41-year-old married woman caught in the act with a man on a picnic table in a public park. The adultery charge was later dropped.
Paul Keable, chief strategy officer of the clandestine dating platform Ashley Madison, spoke to UPI about the law and the impact such laws have, noting it is the third time such laws have been struck down recently including in India and Taiwan.
New York Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill to undo the 1907 legislation, noted in a statement after Hochul signed the bill that the United Nations Human Rights Commission issued a 2012 report advocating that adultery should not be a criminal offense.
“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,” Keable added.
“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.”
Keable noted that Ashley Madison and companies like it could not have been held civilly or criminally liable under the law because the language in it explicitly stated that it only pertained to a person in a marital relationship.
“There were specific provisions there that would exclude any charges against a third party. But there have been laws in other states over the years that have affected Ashley Madison,” he said, particularly states like North Carolina where the company was sued in 2012 by a jilted husband. Ultimately, the man was not awarded any damages.
“We successfully pushed back, and the law has been revised to only be accountable to the individuals perpetrating the act,” Keable said. “Because if you were to charge Ashley Madison, you’d have to charge the hotel rooms. You’d have to charge Apple for letting people use their iPhones to commit these acts of adultery.”
But while the New York law didn’t really stand in the way of Ashley Madison offering its services in the state, Keable still hailed the change in the law as a win for the company, and society at large.
“It’s a recognition of changing morals and mores for Western culture,” he said. “Truly not that long ago, a woman needed her husband to sign a bank form to give her a credit card, so her economic means was very much tied to her marital status. I wouldn’t necessarily say we’re at full equality, but we’re getting closer to it there.”
As for whether there are any other laws out there that Ashley Madison still finds limiting, he noted that Wisconsin and Michigan still have laws on the books that make adultery a felony while another 14 states still have it as a misdemeanor with fines can be up to $10,000.
Keable noted that such laws also effectively ban polyamory and ethical non-monogamy, which are a growing part of Ashley Madison’s business. The company has seen an increase to about 20% of its users who have disclosed non-monogamy, meaning their partners are aware — if not participating outright — in their activities.
“Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a significant increase in people who might be considered polyamorous and open relationship, but they just don’t want their friends, family, and colleagues knowing about their business,” Keable said. “So, they use Ashley Madison with their husband or wife’s consent, if not participation.”
He foresees the company seeing even more of an increase over time because of the growing acceptance of this path, not so much just because of the downfall of laws like the one in New York.
“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.”