BOISE -- Young males who have consensual sex with their 16- or 17-year-old girlfriends would be shielded from rape charges, under a bill passed 35-0 by the Senate.
Sen. Brent Hill, a Rexburg Republican, told lawmakers Monday he doesn't believe "an 18-year-old boy who makes an indiscretion with his 17-year old girlfriend should be considered a rapist or a criminal in the same category as those degenerates."
Idaho's age of consent for females is now 18.
With Hill's measure, which now goes to the House, men within three years of their 16-year-old or 17-year-old girlfriends could no longer be charged with rape after consensual encounters.
His bill leaves all fornicators -- Idahoans who have sex out of wedlock, regardless of age -- subject to six months in jail, under an old Idaho law.
