‘Shacking up’ now legal in Florida after governor signs bill
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, shown in November, has signed legislation that eliminates an 1868 state law that made it illegal for unwed couples to live together.
Reporting from Tallahassee — Unmarried couples worried the long arm of the law would reach into their bedrooms for “living in sin†can rest easy. “Shacking up†is now legal in Florida.
Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 498 along with 19 other bills Wednesday. The bill removes Florida’s 148-year-old prohibition against unwed couples living together.
The crime of cohabitating unmarried couples was hardly ever enforced, but according to the letter of the law, it was a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine. When the law was first passed in 1868, the punishment was up to two years in prison and a $300 fine.
Because of the way the ban was worded, it did not apply to same-sex couples.
“If any man and woman, not being married to each other, lewdly and lasciviously associate and cohabit together . . . they shall be guilty of a second degree misdemeanor,†the former law stated.
State Rep. Richard Stark, a Weston Democrat who co-sponsored the repeal, argued on the House floor that the ban had impacted seniors as well as younger singles.
“I represent communities of seniors, where a lot of them are technically not married,’’ Stark said. “They are living together, but it makes more sense financially or for whatever reason like Social Security to not be married. I don’t think that they want to be considered to be violating the law.â€
The measure passed unanimously in the state Senate but received five opposing votes in the House, all from Republicans, including Rep. Jennifer Sullivan of Mount Dora, at 24, the youngest member of the state Legislature.
Bills to repeal the cohabitation ban have been floated in the Legislature in recent years but were never consummated.
Scott’s action leaves Michigan and Mississippi as the only states with cohabitation bans still on the books.
Gray Rohrer writes for the Orlando Sentinel. Material from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.
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