Reply #25: Here's from one response: [View All]

[pnorman]

"Umm, as much as I hate to ruin a good moral panic… By calling it “a move” and “is considered proof,” your phrasing implies that this is an explicit policy decision.

But in the article you link to from the Womensrights blog, it merely says “And they’ve been accused of using carrying three or more condoms as proof of intent to sell sex.” And if you follow that to the RH Reality Check blog, it only says that arrests based on carrying multiple condoms is “not uncommon,” and that “anecdotal evidence suggests” you can be arrested for having three or more.

I skimmed the entire Move Along Report PDF and also searched on the term “condom.” There is NOTHING about any formal policy that treats the carrying of protection as legal evidence of prostitution. As far as I can see, there are only reports of cops making arrests, on their own, on that basis.

That’s still an abusive, anti-woman, and socially harmful practice. I’m not arguing against that for a second. But I’m already seeing people on sites like Reddit and Digg talking as if Washington DC passed a *law* saying women can be arrested for having three or more condoms, that it’s part of this Prostitution-Free Zone program, and that ordinary women are somehow in grave danger of being arrested there purely on the basis of carrying a bunch of condoms in their purse.

I think there’s a kernel of truth to this story, obviously, but I’m watching it get further and further out of hand the further removed it gets from original sources. Straight up, is there any evidence that the “three condoms” thing exists on paper anywhere, or is it just something people are picking up from reading too fast?

C’mon, guys, I just got finished crowing at a bunch of conservatives who were spreading inane rumors about our president. I really want to believe that we’re the Good Guys and that we actually do our homework before we snap to conclusions. I *totally* support the cause of public reproductive health and better treatment of women, but now I’m worried we’re gonna start an urban legend that it’s “illegal for women to carry more than three condoms in Washington DC.” In fact, that legend seems to have already started. And that upsets me."