In Florida, Living in Sin Is Also Breaking the Law

You may not know it, but if you’re an unmarried Florida couple currently living together, you’re breaking the law. Such cohabitation is a second-degree misdemeanor, and it could cost you up to $500 or 60 days in jail. The law, which dates back to the 1800s, is in the news more than a century later because now a state lawmaker is looking to repeal it. Rep. Ritch Workman is attempting to do the same for other seemingly outdated laws as well, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Those laws include one that requires all bike riders to keep a hand on their handlebars, and another that makes cheating on your husband or wife a misdemeanor (if you’re a member of an opposite-sex married couple, that is). Though rarely enforced, the latter was used in 2006 by a scorned woman who got her hubby arrested for cheating. But Workman’s attempts may be in vain: a Republican state representative notes, "I'm not ready to give up on monogamy and a cultural statement that marriage still matters." (More cohabitation stories.)