Ummm, hell yes you can buy dildos in Texas…they do have the ‘for novelty use only’ label on them, but I PROMISE you they sell them all the time in some very nice stores actually…
And I’m sure your use of them is highly novel…
There was recently a dildo case in Alabama after the state enacted a ban on the commercial distribution of “any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.” The district court overturned the law but the 11th Circuit reversed, stating that the law “is rationally related to the state’s legitimate government interest in public morality.” My cite indicates the case was remanded to review the claims of users of dildoes instead of dildo sellers but I couldn’t find the result. I seem to recall reading that the law was again overturned as a violation of dildo users’ privacy rights but can’t confirm it with a cite.
Does Texas think this kind of enforcement will prevent people from seeking out these kinds of magazines?
[Wiggum]
What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?!"
[/Wiggum]
Your friend doesn’t have it exactly right. Texas outlaws wholesale promotion or intent to possess for wholesale promotion obscene devices. What you friend is getting confused about is that possessing six or more obscene devices gives rise to a rebutable presumption that the possessor has an intent to wholesale promote.
I would like to see a cite for that. Texas outlaws obscene devices, and defines them as “a device including a dildo or artificial vagina, designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.”
Oh, the case is WILLIAMS v. PRYOR, No. 99-10798.
That’s what I’ve always heard. Dildoes, no. Vibrators, yes. And for the record, I’ve never seen dildoes sold in Texas, labeled for “novelty” or otherwise.
Waitasecond. I can think of at least one movie in which a male character obviously has a boner, but we don’t see it because there’s a hat hanging on it.
Would movies like that be banned in Texas?
Look at the whole definition:
The last sentence likely saves the movie, particularly if the hat trick is only one scene.
Beat me to it, Robb. I was formulating a joke about how the movie must have been a black and white art-house flick.
Sorry pravnik, it’s just one of the advantages of not having a sense of humor.
Goddamn is anybody here an adult living in Texas currently. Yes you can buy dildos and just about anything else you can think of. Why is Taboo not for sale in Texas?
Because there are laws against sodomy in Texas.
Somebody above listed quite a few states where they wouldn’t deliver to. Why bash only Texas?
Perhapse the OP lives in Texas and not any of the other states
Oh, ok. That being the case, he should feel better knowing that Taboo isn’t just picking on his state, or that Texas isn’t the only state affected.
The thing with any obscenity case is that law enforcement rarely seeks things out to prosecute people for, with the exception of child porn. Pretty much all obscenity cases get started because a private citizen sees something they don’t like, and they complain to someone. Then law enforcement can decide to take action.
Yes, Larry Flynt is a well-known opponent of censorship and has the court victory to prove it, but courts have upheld time and again a jurisdiction’s right to keep out something it doesn’t want (which was not the issue when he was sued by Jerry Falwell).
In 1973, Texas legalized heterosexual anal and oral sodomy.
don’t you mean go finger? 
What the hell is the difference?
Because 1) the law specifically mentions dildoes as verboten (see cite above), and 2) vibrators are sold as “personal massage devices” with non-sexual, theraputic affects.
The logic seems to be (and I’ll admit, it’s pretty freakin’ shaky logic): if it just lays there, then the ONLY thing it could be used for is to get yourself off. But, if it buzzes and wiggles, well, then, I guess you could use it to, I dunno, relax sore muscles.
I’m not saying it makes sense, just that that’s how it is. Now, IANAL or a “adult novelty” seller, but I am an adult living in Texas, and that’s how it’s always been explained to me. YMMV.
Luckily, fingers are still legal.