Calif. Set To Criminalize Taking Off Condom Without Partner’s Permission
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“Stealthing” during sex may soon be illegal in California, making it the first state to deem the practice a crime. The Los Angeles Times reports that Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia introduced a bill this week that would classify nonconsensual removal of a condom during intercourse as sexual battery, making the remover of the condom liable for damages. Seriously.
Sexual battery, per California’s Civil Code, is when a violator “acts with the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact with an intimate body part of another, and as a result, commits a sexually offensive act.” “It’s disgusting that there are online communities that defend and encourage” the practice, “but there is nothing in the law that makes it clear that this is a crime,” Garcia said Monday, per GV Wire, which notes the practice has been called a “rape-adjacent” one.
“A lot of women [compare] it to feelings of experiencing rape,” a John Jay College of Criminal Justice psychology professor tells the Times. “It violates the trust you had in your partner.” Garcia tried to pass similar bills in 2017 and 2018, but her office says they never got anywhere because of concerns about sending too many people to the state’s prisons.
Garcia, who’s been at the forefront of California’s Me Too movement, faced sexual misconduct accusations of her own after an ex-staffer said she’d inappropriately touched him during a softball game.
An investigation by the Assembly cleared Garcia of wrongdoing. Advocates for victims of sexual violence are pleased that Garcia is once more bringing the issue into the spotlight. “This is an act that’s a violation of someone’s autonomy,” says an attorney with the Fierberg National Law Group. “There’s the risk of pregnancy, there’s the risk of STIs, but also inherently it’s changing the entire nature of the sexual encounter.”
(Read more sexual battery stories.)
Edited via Newser.
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FFS, maybe we should all go back to budling, the way they did in olden times. If this gets put on the ballot here I’ll be voting no like Vicki.
I’m not sure what provoked this nonsense, but that’s precisely what it seems to be. I could count the ways as to why it is nonsense but life is just too short, and I recommend folks use good common sense.
So how do we treat the case where a woman tells you she’s using birth control? Lest I be accused of “blaming the victim” I’ll just drop it and won’t bother to suggest common sense.
Glenn, in the scenario you bring up I would say the victim would be the male partner. I was going to bring that up. I think this is ridiculous. A women should always use birth control too. As a Californian I will be voting no on this. I am shaking my head!
I don’t know guys. There are fricking idiots running around everywhere. Why they do stupid things I don’t know, but they do.