MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – California has adopted a bill which redefines sexual assault and rape, as Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law Sunday, his office says as reported by Reuters. Now, the state’s colleges and universities must adopt a new single standard of consent applicable to all sexual activities of students.
Californian legislatives say the bill is designed to prevent rape and sexual misconduct on campuses. The previous rule of “no means no” is now replaced with the new one, “yes means yes”.
The new regulation lowers the standard of what actually constitutes sexual assault and rape. Students must now gain verbal consensual affirmative consent. Now, a person’s silence, lack of resistance or consent given under the influence are not reasons enough to rule out the sex assault charges, says LA Times.
State lawmakers hope that the new regulation will change the current practices of sexual assault prevention and investigation. "Students at every California college campus will have basic protections to promote prevention, accountability and healing", said Calif. Sen. Kevin De Leon (D, LA).
The students themselves seem to support the measure, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Campus activists, Emma Sulkowicz among them, had earlier expressed distrust for their schools to protect them from sexual assault and rape. Now many colleges are already reworking their internal rules of conduct nationwide.
President Obama has earlier claimed sex assault is a campus “epidemic” across the US
California Changes the Definition of Sex Assault
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California has adopted a bill which redefines sexual assault and rape, as Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law Sunday
