# Indignities for divorce: Loathsome Disease?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indignities-for-divorce-loathsome-disease/206737>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 10, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indignities-for-divorce-loathsome-disease/206737 "2003-10-10T21:33:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indignities-for-divorce-loathsome-disease/206737/1 "2003-10-10T21:33:33Z")

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Cite: [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031010.html](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031010.html)

When discussing divorce on grounds of “indignities”, Cecil is asked about what is the “Loathsome Disease” that is a grounds for divorce in Kentucky. His answer:

> [@](#):
>
> Loathsome disease, a traditional grounds for divorce in many cultures, is commonly understood to mean something like leprosy–not your typical marital problem these days.

While it probably did, in olden days, include diseases that made you “unclean”, seeing as how it’s grounds for _divorce_, could this apply these days as a euphemistic reference to STDs? IIRC early in the 20th Century syphillis control was a big Public Health issue and many states for the longest time made you test for it before marriage.