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A Republican state congressman in Kentucky is withdrawing and refiling a bill that accidentally struck first cousins from the list of relationships that legally qualify as incest in the state, he said on Wednesday.
Rep. Nick Wilson, best known for winning Survivor: David vs. Goliath in 2018, blamed an “inadvertent change” during the drafting process on the error. “The fact that I was able to file a bill, catch the mistake, withdraw the bill and refile within a 24 hour period shows we have a good system,” he insisted.
His bill, HB 269, was originally intended to add “sexual contact” to Kentucky’s incest statute, raising the act to a Class D Felony. The proposed removal of “first cousins” from the statute’s list of individuals who would be considered a family member—including parents, siblings, grandparents, great-grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, ancestors, and descendants—was quickly spotted and went viral across social media.