One Wonders How Many California Lawmakers Would Have Been Branded As Sex Offenders Under The New Law They Passed?

In California, repeatedly saying ‘yes’ during sex doesn’t mean what you think it means

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Ben Bullard

California’s new affirmative consent law, designed to ensure the government has a say in every sexual encounter, has been a bear to explain — especially to the young demographic that’s supposedly promiscuous enough to warrant a group explanation.

But that hasn’t deterred the law’s devotees from trying. Here’s howThe New York Times described one disciple’s effort to explain the “yes means yes” rule to a room full of San Francisco 10th graders:

Consent from the person you are kissing — or more — is not merely silence or a lack of protest, Shafia Zaloom, a health educator at the Urban School of San Francisco, told the students. They listened raptly, but several did not disguise how puzzled they felt.

“What does that mean — you have to say ‘yes’ every 10 minutes?” asked Aidan Ryan, 16, who sat near the front of the room.

“Pretty much,” Ms. Zaloom answered. “It’s not a timing thing, but whoever initiates things to another level has to ask.”

With California’s approval of the law this month, school across the state are forced to teach secondary school students the finer points of when, and how, “yes means yes” applies to sex.

The policy is already the de facto guide for colleges throughout the state in investigating  on-campus rape claims. As the Washington Examiner’s Ashe Schow has reported in her ongoing series covering the topsy-turvy world of campus rape enforcement, the law entitles universities to persecute — not prosecute — the accused. And it basically invites those who regret sex after the fact to claim they’ve been raped.

“In the rush to advance legislation to combat sexual assault on college campuses, California lawmakers have cast aside the due process rights of the accused,” Schow wrote as the California bill moved through the state legislature last year. “As a result, more college men could find themselves unfairly branded as rapists.”

California’s law, which progressives are citing as a model for legislation in other states, “requires consent to be ‘ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time.’ And just because a couple has a prior dating history or has engaged in sexual activity previously ‘should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent,’” she added.

At the end of the day, the law won’t change human nature. It will simply give one party in sexual encounters an unfairly powerful legal weapon with which to bludgeon the other, should their sexual endeavors prove humiliating … or their relationship with their unlucky partner turn sour.