MOSCOW, August 29 (RIA Novosti) – California could become the first US state to legally define what amounts to consensual sexual activity on college campuses, as lawmakers have passed a new bill that specifies when “yes means yes.”
The California Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a bill that defines consent to sex as the presence of a “yes” rather than the absence of a “no” and applies to all colleges and universities accepting state financial aid.
"With this measure, we will lead the nation in bringing standards and protocols across the board so we can create an environment that's healthy, that's conducive for all students, not just for women, but for young men as well too, so young men can develop healthy patterns and boundaries as they age with the opposite sex," US Senator Kevin de Leon, who advocated the bill, said before the vote, as quoted by Associated Press.
The bill now goes to California Governor Jerry Brown, who has until the end of September to sign it into law.
The definition of sexual consent under the bill requires "an affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity," according to de Leon.
Silence or lack of resistance does not constitute consent. The law says it is also not consent if the person is drunk, drugged, unconscious or asleep.
“The reality is, when you’re inebriated, when a drug has been slipped into your drink, you can’t say no, you can’t fend off an attacker,” de Leon told MSNBC Tuesday.
The bill says consent to sexual activity can be nonverbal, and US universities with similar policies have outlined some examples of a nonverbal “yes,” including a nod of the head or moving in closer to the person.
If passed, the bill would require California colleges and universities to adopt victim-centered sexual-assault response policies and implement comprehensive programs to prevent sexual assault on college campuses.
In January, US President Barack Obama vowed to make the issue of sexual assault a priority.
Obama announced the creation of a task force chaired by Vice President Joe Biden that set up a website providing tips for filing sexual assault complaints.
The Office of the Vice President and the White House Council on Women and Girls issued a report the same month revealing that nearly one in every five college women in the United States is sexually assaulted by the time she graduates.
Only 12 percent of college women report the assaults, which is a much lower rate than the estimated 40 percent of assaults that are reported by the general population, according to the US Department of Justice.
“The Sexual Victimization of College Women” report compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US National Institute of Justice in 2000 said that less than five percent of completed or attempted rapes against college women were reported to law enforcement.
The same report indicated that for every 1,000 women attending a US college or university, there were 35 incidents of rape every academic year.
The US Department of Education has never punished a college or university by withdrawing federal funds in connection to sexual assault, according to Al Jazeera.
