Victims will be able to sue the authors. By adopting this law, the Governor Democrat Gavin Newsom wants to “emphasize the importance of consent”.
Le Monde with AFP
More and more denounced, this practice remains little sanctioned by law around the world. California has become, Thursday, October 7, the first American state to punish the withdrawal not consented to a condom during a sexual relationship, announced the Office of the Governor Democrat, Gavin Newsom.
The practice, called Stealthing in the United States, exposes to the risks of sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV, and unwanted pregnancy. “The victims of Stealthing will be able to sue the authors. By adopting this law, we emphasize the importance of consent,” Tweeted the Governor of California’s office announcing the signing of this law.
“Happy than California guides the nation with regard to stealthing. One less state; more than 49”, has Tweeted Cristina Garcia, a member of the state assembly of California at the origin of the bill, rejoicing that this makes this process “Not only immoral, but illegal”.
“This struggle started before my birth. It only had too late, it’s a euphemism to say it.”
“Non-Consenting Relationship”
According to the new law, a person commits sexual assault when it “causes contact between a sexual organ whose condom has been removed and the intimate parts of another which did not verbally consented to the withdrawal of the condom “.
This problem, more and more present in popular culture, has recently been addressed in the success series I May Destroy You. The main character, Arabella, has a sexual relationship with a man who withdraws his condom without warning.
The Stealthing transforms “a sexual relationship in relation to non-consented relationship”, and is “lived by many as a serious violation of dignity and autonomy,” said Alexandra Brodsky in an article published in 2017 in Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, who had helped to make this practice known in the United States.
M me Brodsky emphasized the existence of online forums offering advice on how to withdraw his condom without his or his partner realizes. Some have since been closed.
In January 2017, a Frenchman to whom he was criticized for this practice had been sentenced by a Tribunal de Lausanne, in Switzerland, for “rape”, at twelve months in prison, a sentence confirmed on appeal, but requalified. ‘”Sexual order committed on a person incapable of discernment or resistance”.