Yes means yes, says Mr Brown

摘要

Roughly two decades ago, Antioch College in Ohio became the first in America to require students to give step-by-step consent during sexual encounters. The policy was widely mocked. "Saturday Night Live" invented an imaginary game show called "Is It Date Rape?" with a script that quoted almost verbatim from Anti-och's code. Now that code is becoming the norm at American colleges, and Few people are laughing. On September 28th Jerry Brown, California's governor, signed a bill requiring all colleges that receive state money for student financial aid to enforce a standard of "affirmative consent", or "yes means yes". This means both parties must agree to sexual contact, either through verbal communication or clear, non-verbal cues. Moreover, they must do so at each stage of an encounter. An initial "yes" to a kiss doesn't constitute a "yes" to sexual intercourse. Silence or lack of resistance do not mean "yes". Consent must be continual and "can be revoked at any time". Intoxication is no defence: "It shall not be a valid excuse that the accused believed that the complainant affirmatively consented..:if the accused knew or reasonably should have known that the complainant was unable to consent [because she was too drunk to] understand the fact, nature, or extent of the sexual activity."