New Hampshire Supreme Court: Gay sex not adulterous

Last week the New Hampshire Supreme Court handed down a ruling in a divorce case that precluded the petitioner from amending the original grounds for divorce — that old chestnut irreconcilable differences — to adultery based on the fact that his wife had carried on an affair with a woman. But since no penis insertions could be performed between the women, it wasn’t adulterous behavior.

The plain and ordinary meaning of adultery is “voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 30 (unabridged ed. 1961). Although the definition does not specifically state that the “someone” with whom one commits adultery must be of the opposite gender, it does require sexual intercourse.

The plain and ordinary meaning of sexual intercourse is “sexual connection esp. between humans: COITUS, COPULATION.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2082. Coitus is defined to require “insertion of the penis in the vagina[],” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 441, which clearly can only take place between persons of the opposite gender.

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