The sensitive issues of circumcision and teen sex have one Oakland activist filing suit in California -- to ban the former and ban prosecution of the latter.
Rev. Svend la Rose's lawsuit maintains that circumcision is already banned under California's mayhem law and California's constitutional equal protection law (section 7), and that enforcement of that possible ban is what's sought.
In a news release about the suit, la Rose likens, legally, the parallel of female circumcision with the importance of a male's prepuce.
In addition to seeking a ban on circumcision, la Rose's lawsuit seeks a ban on prosecution of sex "with and among people under the age of 18."
La Rose states his logic: "If developally disabled people and retarded (sic) people are defined by their incapacity and yet they still have at least a chance to consent or to prove their ability to consent, then how can you deny the same right to young people, who are not defined by their incapacity but by some arbitrary characteristic?"
La Rose is president of ASFAR Youth Liberation, is an ordained minister and an accomplished musician, according to the release.
"He is suing in another case to get back into UC Berkeley. Finally, and purely coincidentally, he is homeless."
