Acidus wrote:
] ] ATLANTA - Genital piercings for women were banned by the
] ] Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill
] ] outlining punishments for female genital mutilation.
]

Sounds like they didn't know what the hell they were passing. It'll probably get smoked in the conference committee. However, if you live in Atlanta and like piercings NOW is the time to send a very loud message to your state legislators that they are confused about this and they need to rethink it. If you wait a week you'll be out of luck.

Decius wrote:
] Acidus wrote:
] ] ] ATLANTA - Genital piercings for women were banned by the
] ] ] Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill
] ] ] outlining punishments for female genital mutilation.

] Sounds like they didn't know what the hell they were passing.

The Yahoo URL for this story is dead, by the way.

Also, this story is very old news. The Georgia legislature hasn't been in session for months now. The AP story on this topic ran back in March 2004. If you look at the cited URL, you'll see "20040324", which just happens to be the date of the story.

Here's what is essentially the same AP story:

March 24, 2004, Wednesday, BC cycle

HEADLINE: Georgia House bans genital piercings for women
DATELINE: ATLANTA

BODY:
Genital piercings for women were banned by the Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill outlining punishments for female genital mutilation.

The bill would make such mutilation punishable by two to 20 years in prison. It makes no exception for people who give consent to have the procedure performed on their daughters out of religious or cultural custom.

An amendment adopted without objection added "piercing" to the list of things that may not be done to female genitals. Even adult women would not be allowed to get the procedure. The bill eventually passed 160-0, with no debate.

Amendment sponsor Rep. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, was slack-jawed when told after the vote that some adults seek the piercings.

"What? I've never seen such a thing," Heath said. "I, uh, I wouldn't approve of anyone doing it. I don't think that's an appropriate thing to be doing."

The ban applies only to women, not men. The bill has already been approved by the Senate but now must return to that chamber because of the piercing amendment. Both chambers of the Legislature must agree on a single version of a bill before it can go to the governor for final approval.

The bill is HB 1477. You can read the full text at

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2003_04/fulltext/hb1477.htm

which, to me, is an extraordinarily slow web site. So, here is the full text of the bill, as presented at the above web site. This version does not contain the aforementioned amendment. Nevertheless:

04 LC 19 6149

House Bill 1477
By: Representatives Mobley of the 58th, Thomas of the 43rd, Post 1, and Anderson of the 100th

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT

To amend Chapter 6 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to sexual offenses, so as to enact the "Amirah Joyce Adem Act;" to create the offense of female genital mutilation; to provide a penalty; to provide that certain acts shall not constitute affirmative defenses; to provide for exceptions; to provide that certain statutory privileges shall not be available; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for... [ Read More (0.5k in body) ]