The headline: "Unmarried woman challenges law; Fired because she lived with her boyfriend, she files suit to overturn state cohabitation ban." When we first came across this story on Dispatches from the Culture Wars, our first thought was to check the calendar. Hey, it's April Fool's Day, this must be a joke. But it isn't. From the News and Observer:

A Pender County dispatcher forced to quit her job last year after the sheriff discovered she had a live-in boyfriend is suing to overturn a N.C. law that makes living together a crime.

A crime?! She wasn't just fired because her boss didn't like her personal choices (which would have been bad enough), she was committing a crime! Well, what's the penalty for such a heinous act? A $50 fine? Community service?

Living together as an unmarried couple is a misdemeanor punishable by as many as 60 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Sweet, evil Jesus! Surely North Carolina is the only state to have such a clearly ridiculous law on the books, right? And they probably never enforce it...

In North Carolina, one of about half a dozen states with such a law, 33 people have been charged with the crime and 25 people have been convicted since 1997, according to the ACLU.

25 people have been convicted of living with an unmarried partner over the past eight years and have received jail time and/or a fine of up to $1000?! And this is just North Carolina — apparently about eight other states also have such laws on their books.

Seriously, this is not a joke. We wish that it was. Check it out for yourself in the News and Observer as well as on the ACLU-NC web site:

N.C.G.S. § 14-184 states, in relevant part: If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.

To quote Les Jenkins, "What the fuck is wrong with you people?"

I AM HERE TO TELL YOU ...I am one of the people convicted of cohabitation in nc . I was born and raised in nc . I grew up in the country and all I ever wanted to be was a wife and mom . I was married over 20 years .and was a stay at home mom my world was my children and family . WELL let me tell you what I was worth after helping him build up his family business over 24 years NOTHING!!! My world was turned upside down . He quote didn"t want to be married anymore ! I waited over a year before I went on a date I asked over and over all the powers that be what was cohabitation they said just don't live together I didn't . I had a home and a beach house as well. I paid sooooo much money out only to get support then have it taken away ???? I was so emotionally and financally drained not to mention mentally after over 4 years .I had nothing left to give . His money and name had won. I was tired and needed it over for me and my kids. I use to be so very proud to be for north carolina and I really believed in the system WELL NOT ANYMORE!!!! I had my life turned into a nightmare by the very system that I was raised to believe in . I suppose I am writing this to let those people who sit and judge cohabitation that you can not EVER KNOW how it feels to have your every move questioned . You say the law protects the family unit well who protected me or my kids after 20 years? What you fell to understand is that this awful law is sooo very wrong and it forces people to live together ! Where can a stay at home mom of 20 years and not even a high school education get a job??? Why should she have to ?Where is her income ? You better believe they didn"t take his salary did they? I hope this helps someone to stop judging something you know nothing about unless you lived through it... thank you