A Black lawmaker in Mississippi reveals he is getting death threats from men in his state, around the country and across the globe for proposing a bill that would criminalize masturbation.
Mississippi senator introduced controversial bill
State Sen. Bradford Blackmon introduced a “Contraception Begins at Erection Act” that would criminalize both masturbation and casual sex unless it includes the “intent to fertilize an embryo.”
Blackmon said he wanted to highlight double standards
Blackmon told media outlets that his intention was to illuminate the double standard between women and men concerning reproductive health and the prohibition of abortion. Mississippi bans abortion unless it threatens the life of the mother or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Blackmon decries the laws that regulate women’s bodies and the right to choose when men share in the conception of a child.
“When a bill has been filed that would regulate what a man is able to do with his own body in his own home, it suddenly has people in an uproar,” he said in a statement on his official Instagram page, saying he created the proposal to highlight the “double standards in legislation.”
“I am trying to figure out when it isn’t OK for the government to dictate what you do in the privacy of your own home; apparently, it is when the laws regulate men.”
Blackmon said that while the bill is legitimate, it was not intended to be taken seriously but to spark meaningful dialogue about the double standard of laws that regulate women’s bodies but not men’s.
“All across the country, especially here in Mississippi, the vast majority of bills relating to contraception and/or abortion focus on the woman’s role when men are 50% of the equation,” he told the New York Post. “This bill highlights that fact and brings the man’s role into the conversation. People can get up in arms and call it absurd but I can’t say that bothers me.”
Death threats follow bill’s introduction
Blackmon told TMZ that while mostly males have left “vile” messages and death threats on his website and social media platforms, women understood what he was trying to do and, therefore, were kinder in their responses.
