Consensual sex
 

Our constitutional court is to hear argument today that the age of same-sex sexual relations be brought down from 19 years of age to 16 years of age which is the present legal age limit for hetrosexual sexual relations.

This has been brought about by a court of appeal in which a 20 year old male had a sexual relationship with an 18 year old male and was charged with rape and convicted.

I can see the logic behind the higher age limit and personally, I would argue it be higher - but what is it in other countries?

Here the age of concent is 14, regardless of the sex of the people involved. Personaly I think 14 is a bit too low and 16 would be more apropriate.

20...? That is excessive, I think. How is the tolerance and obedience regarding that law - does anyone know for sure...? :lol:

After all, it is just a human need.

In Germany, sex is allowed when you are 14, with a partner age 14 or 15 .

When you are 16, you are allowed to have sex with a partner of age 16, 17, 18 or older.

When you are 18 or older, you may have consensual sex with a 16 or 17 year old, but not with a 14 or 15 year old, or even younger ones.

The law knows restriction for sexual practices only with regard to animal protection laws (! :lol: ). Means: sex with animals is a no go over here. status of relationship (married, unmmarried) as well as form of consensual pratices are not adressed by laws. Abuse of children (age limits 14 and 16 as described above), non-consensual sex and non-consensual practices obviously are forbidden.

Personally I can see no logic in having a higher age of consent for Homosexual sex than Hetrosexual sex. If a 16 year old is deemed physically and mentally mature enough to have straight sex than why should a gay 16 year old have to wait another couple of years?

There used to be a higher age of consent in the UK, but after a study into the need
for it, it was abandoned in 2003.

Exactly. He/she would probably do it anyway, but maybe in a more risky way. Equal rights for hetero and homo seems nothing but fair.

In Denmark the age limit is 15.
Though, theoretically a 85-year-old person may have sex with a 15-year-old, it's of course not well accepted. We recently had a case, when a 35-year-old male politician had sex with a 15-year-old girl, which he met as guest at a party for the political youth of his party. It wasn't such a wise move to do for him, but by law he didn't do anything wrong.
Something like what Skybird wrote about limits in Germany have been discussed as well, but they remain discussions whether to limit the age differences, which would only seem normal.

It's 15 where I came from (Czech Republic). I do believe that the lowest age in the world is 14 (in Holland) but I might be wrong. I'd say 15-16 sounds about right to me.

16 in Germany, both for heterosexual and homosexual relations.
There is no legal difference between both in german criminal law, ever since § 175 (which banned homosexual relations) was abolished in the 1960s or 70s.
Relationships can be criminalized when somebody has sex with a person under his custody.
Consentual sex with persons betwen 16 and 18 is not legal when a custodiary, educational or other such relation is there, like teacher-pupil relationships.
Interestingly, sex in the military is not as legally complicated as it is in the US.
In civil law, however, there is a huge difference between homosexual and heterosexual relations. Marriage is regulated in civil law code BGB while gay "marriage" is regulated in a new seperate "life partnership law".
Adoption is more complicated for "life partnerships" than for married couples.
Inheritance, legal succession and such are about equal, though

Funny is, until about 1970s or so we had a paragraph banning "coupling". Meaning you could go to jail if you gave an unmarried couple the opportunity to have sex by renting them a hotel room or so.
:rotfl:

The first time I had sex I was alone. How old must you be to have sex with yourself? Is it considered consensual?

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:up:

Most people in my country live by the rule "if there is grass on the pitch play on" thats judging by the number of under age mums around here and not me personally im happily single.

Personally, I think all consent should be locked in at 18. Period.
If you're old enough to join the military at that age, you should be
old enough to know what ELSE you're doing, too....male OR female
(and WHO you're doing it with, too).

Just my 2¢

Just out of curiosity: How many people around you you know waited (or are willing to wait) to have a sex until they are 18? Give me an honest answer...

Furthermore I believe that "drinking age" in the US should be 18. 21 is ridiculous!

I have a hard time with the logic behind that. Sex with 14 to a 14, but not a 16 to a 14. Sheesh. You need a spreadsheet to keep track of all those details. :hmm:

But what if the animal consents? And what if it's with a rabid Tasmanian Devil? In August? :rotfl:

Not really, it makes even a lot of sense. In those years, social perceptions and sense of responsibility changes drastically and quickly with young humans. The olde rone is being held repsonsible for not abusing the social inexperience of the younger one. On the other hand, the difference between 14 and 16, and 16 and 18 may be both two years, but in psychological quality, there are differences between these ages. You cannot prevent nowadays that young ones of age 14 or 15 discover interest in each other, on the other hand you want to prevent that the older one takes unfair advnatge of the younger ones. Thus, the grading of ages.

Hope i made myself clear, I was fighting with terms and language a bit.