On July 11, 2015, NY passed a yes-means-yes law for sexual intimacy on college campuses. Here's the story:
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — What if you had to ask if it was okay
to put your hand on the other person's butt during foreplay? What if you had to
ask again before touching her breast? What if there was a law that said you had
to do this?
In New York, there is now on all college campuses. A bill signed into law July 7 requires both parties to obtain consent for sex and each nibble and caress that sometimes paves the way. The law applies only on college campuses. At its heart is a simple concept: instead of "No Means No," it's "Yes Means Yes."
It switches the dynamic of consent in what could be an empowering way. The hope is that by changing the power structure of the hook-up and making it law, college sexual assaults will decrease. The legislation, proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and called "Enough is Enough," was passed unanimously by the state Legislature.
There have been critics, including this one:
"You look at the legal system we're building and it's incredible risky to hook up with someone you're not married to," said Peter Lake, director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University in Florida.
"It changes the rules of the game. It gives the game rules," Lake said.
Perhaps Prof. Lake said more in the interview, stuff that wasn't included in the article. But what he does say makes no sense to me. There's no explanation for why the consent requirement would make things "incredibly risky." Nor do I see what is presumptively problematic about "chang[ing] the rules of the game" or giving the "game rules." (Is anyone else unsettled by the description of sexual intimacy as a "game"?) Sexual intimacy already has rules; it is already governed by norms for what is acceptable intimacy and what is rape. A proposal to change said rules–or, rather, make them more explicit–is not in and of itself objectionable.