In Florida, Living in Sin Is Also Breaking the Law

But a lawmaker is looking to change that
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 31, 2011 12:48 PM CDT
In Florida, Living in Sin Is Also Breaking the Law
In Florida, you better not move in together until you get married.   (Shutterstock)

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 Ritch Workman is attempting to do the same for other seemingly outdated laws as well, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.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.)

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