GOP Lawmaker In Mississippi Proposes Fines And Psychological Counseling For Saggy Pants

WAYNE PARRY/AP

Wearing pants like this in Mississippi could get you fined and sent into counseling under a proposed law.

A Mississippi lawmaker really doesn’t want to see your underwear. 

Tom Weathersby, a Republican serving in the state’s House of Representatives, has proposed a law that could lead to fines and even counseling for people who wear “sagging” pants, or a style in which pants hang so low that underwear is exposed.

“Personally, I like to see people dressed when they’re in public and I like to see people with their pants up,” Weathersby told Mississippi Today.

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

State Rep. Tom Weathersby: Pull up your pants, or face fines and counseling.

Weathersby’s bill, introduced last week, would make it “unlawful for any person to wear pants, shorts or clothing bottoms that exposes underwear or body parts in an indecent or vulgar manner.”

The penalty for a first offense of the noncriminal citation is a warning, and ― for juveniles ― notifying their parents or guardians. After that, fines begin at $20 for a second offense and run up to $100 for a sixth offense. That sixth offense would also include “psychological and social counseling by the Department of Human Services and the Department of Mental Health.”

Both departments have faced budget cuts and staff shortages in recent years. Weathersby’s bill does not increase funding for either department in order to counsel people who wear sagging pants.

Several other communities have banned saggy pants over the years, including Opa-Locka, Florida, and Wildwood, New Jersey. In 2015, four high school students in Tennessee were charged with indecent exposure ― and two were jailed ― for wearing sagging pants.