Contact: Gina Lauterio
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: info@saveservices.org
California Affirmative Consent Policy Portends ‘Unraveling of the Democratic Coalition,’ Columnist Warns
WASHINGTON / October 8, 2014 – SAVE, a national victim-advocacy organization, is today launching a campaign to highlight the controversies surrounding the so-called Affirmative Consent proposals which advocates claim will curb campus sexual assault. Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed bill SB-967 which will require California students to provide ongoing “affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity.”
Affirmative Consent has been criticized by commentators from all points on the political spectrum.
Writing in Time magazine, Camille Paglia recently warned, “Colleges should stick to academics and stop their infantilizing supervision of students’ dating lives, an authoritarian intrusion that borders on violation of civil liberties.” http://time.com/3444749/camille-paglia-the-modern-campus-cannot-comprehend-evil/#3444749/camille-paglia-the-modern-campus-cannot-comprehend-evil/
Hoover Institution fellow Peter Berkowitz observed, “Indeed the indifference to and sometimes outright disdain for due process among our faculty and administrators is transforming our universities into bastions of authoritarianism:” http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/10/03/lawsuit_casts_harsh_light_on_due_process_at_colgate__124167.html#ixzz3FVWYVGsM
Earlier this week liberal columnist Jonathan Chait wrote the California bill represents a “massive broadening of the legal definition of rape” which will “likely reverberate in ways liberals have barely begun to contemplate.” Chait warned the policy portends the “future unraveling of the Democratic coalition.” http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/californias-radical-college-sex-law-experiment.html
SAVE notes that Affirmative Consent policies classify 99% of consensual encounters as sexual assault, are likely to be ineffective in stopping rape, encourage false allegations, and are unworkable in real life: http://www.saveservices.org/camp/affirmative-consent-2/
“Legislators who are considering Affirmative Consent legislation should ask how requiring a woman to say ‘Yes’ would in any way deter a rapist intent on committing a heinous crime,” notes SAVE spokesperson Sheryle Hutter. “Instead, legislators should be proposing legislation that mandates stronger involvement of the criminal justice system.”
Numerous editorials have criticized the notion of Affirmative Consent: www.accusingu.org .
Stop Abusive and Violent Environments – SAVE — is working to promote effective solutions to campus sexual assault: http://www.saveservices.org/