"That doesn't, sure, but that can't?"

"I think that if a powerful wizard forces himself on a girl, he's mistreating her even if he uses magic to make it so he can't get her pregnant!"

"Yes, that can't! Do we really have to define - "

"I agree that he is," Xavier agrees with Victoria. "Also, only female wizards don't conceive if they don't want to. Male wizards don't have the same advantage."

“It’s wrong to mistreat anyone, but we’re talking about a different thing if it’s not going to leave bastards or make it harder to get married after, or all those problems.”

The policy of ‘if a powerful wizard passing through  makes it happen, then it doesn’t count’ may also be tangled up in the fact that powerful wizards are a thing that just happens. Better for everyone if it’s agreed that you should just say there’s no consequence and it didn’t count. 

If it turns out that powerful wizards who are in the form of men do leave bastards, just like the fey sometimes do… okay that might explain some things about some people. 

"Okay, Ferrer is right. These are at least two different conversations. Porras, I have no idea what definition you're using and was certainly not imagining that when we voted to outlaw rape we were only outlawing forcing a woman to conceive. If those were the same thing I wouldn't have listed them separately. Also the wording literally includes men, so it's obviously not just about children."

"—also, if a woman hasn't started bleeding yet, it's still wrong to force yourself on her."

"Yes, yes it is."

"There are a number of acts considered sexual that do not involve the traditional methods of making children and could not do so even if unlucky. Some of them involve pain and control and were heavily encouraged as part of diabolist relationships, but not all of them, and many of the others - and supposedly some of the diabolist ones as well - are reportedly very popular, mostly but not exclusively in brothels. Some of them between members of the same sex. Ideally we would like those to be legal and forcing them on people to be illegal."

There, she avoided mentioning anything explicit. Please don't ask for details. And if you do, not to her.

"...why is it we want the diabolist sex to be legal?"

"They seem to enjoy it in Absalom, but if we ban it I won't shed many tears."

" - Because there are men who like having sex with men," Xavier tells him frankly. "Shelyn has no objections, and neither do I."

“I guess we can call forcing someone to do all of those the same wrong as rape, at least in the laws on rights. I’m not sure if that works but— I guess the parts where the difference matters are the job of the family committee then.”

"...okay, now I don't know what we're talking about. Why are we calling men having sex with men 'diabolist sex'."

“I don’t think the thing some men do with each other is the same either, they can only have kids doing that if they’re both wizards? I’m not sure about that. But it’s not diabolist, good people do that too.”

"They cannot," he says, "unless they are very, very powerful wizards."

"That was not what I intended to refer to as diabolist; I have no objections to it either, my apologies." She's not immediately sure whether he refers to himself or merely close friends, but it's not that subtle that he cares very personally.

"There are other somewhat sexual things that are often, but according to visitors to Absalom not exclusively, Asmodean in character, that are considered illicit enough not to be discussed politely even where they're legal and probably not Evil. Those are the things I wouldn't mind banning if it comes down to it."

Well what the fuck kind of sex is Asmodean but not evil????

(Look, there's a whole series of romance novels about this.)

...Victòria is pretty sure she's supposed to know more about this sort of thing than she does.

"- okay, look. I hold that to rape someone is to, by force or violence, penetrate the anus or vagina of another person, using any body part or implement. Would anyone like to contest this definition of the thing that we agreed to ban."

"No."

What a fool Enric was, spending last evening trying to learn more about mining and necromancy. Clearly he should have been talking to that guy at the lodging house who buys novels from the church of Shelyn and reads them out loud to everyone. 

Though Xavier seems to have that covered, knowing all about what wizards do for romance or sex, and what men who are romantic with other men do, and even how powerful wizards can have sex with men instead of just romance. 

…

Okay people are defining things. No objections, or looking up from the table.

There's one or two other things but she does not actually want to contest it. Look, Kintargo is a port city through and through, you can't avoid sailors.

"It's sufficient."

"We can very easily add 'or threat of violence' to this definition, or make that a lesser but criminal offense with the same wording. This does not outlaw all immoral sex acts, but that seems a matter either best addressed by the committee on family, or by switching gears from listing specific acts and digging into possible implementations of Ferrer's suggested right to your own person."