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Cake day: June 4th, 2025

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  • In California, the age of consent was 18 by 1920. In the 1960s and 1970s when I became sexually active, almost nobody I knew was 18 or over at the time of their first sexual experience. It was a widely-ignored law, selectively enforced. When I was under 18, most of my partners were of similar age (and on the Pill).

    In the 1880s, the age of consent in California was 10. That was typical for most states in that era. The increase to 18 was driven by the same odd alliance of progressive eugenicists and Christian reactionaries who brought us Prohibition.

    The widespread belief in the US that two 17-year-olds having a screw should be subject to prosecution seems insanely punitive and contrary to human nature.

    It’s 16 in the UK, which in my view makes better sense. All of the EU countries set the age of consent somewhere in the 14-16 range.