–
–
In order to remove a condom during sex, all participants in sexual intercourse must agree. PHOTO: Pixabay
–
California has banned this from happening after a series of abuses
Maxine Dugan is a novice prostitute at a massage club in Alaska when she finds out that a client has secretly removed a condom while having sex. Shocked, she runs to the bathroom to wash herself. When he returns, he is gone. A few weeks later, she found out she was pregnant. At that time she was only 20 years old and could not decide to raise a child alone, moreover – created in such a deceptive way by a stranger. She had an abortion for which she paid $ 300 – too high for her income at the time. Also, it can’t work for about a month. Today, 30 years later, Dugan continues to remember this difficult moment in her life. She is among the people who have publicly welcomed the passage of special legislation in California that prohibits the removal of a condom during sexual intercourse without the consent of the partner. It enables victims of such acts to claim compensation.
“We wanted to make sure it was not only immoral, but also illegal,” said California State Deputy Christina Garcia at the presentation of the law. She has tried several times to pass legislation on the issue, but has failed. Initially, in 2017, he proposed that the removal of a condom be declared a crime and that the prosecutor’s office be able to plead for the punishment of the perpetrators, including imprisonment. The idea is not supported, as it seems too extreme for most US lawmakers. However, its revised version to be regulated by the California Civil Code was approved by a majority.
“However, I continue to think that this act should be prosecuted through the penal code, not the civil code, because if the consent to have sex with a condom is violated, isn’t that tantamount to sexual violence,” Garcia told the BBC. She was inspired to work to pass legislation against violators of the safe sex agreement after reading a study by law student Alexandra Brodsky, in which the future lawyer explored in great detail the problem of removing a condom without consent. who were affected by this, and found that they had all gone through serious worries and fears that they might have contracted a sexually transmitted disease or become pregnant. what happened as sexual violence.
“I think a lot of the problem comes from the fact that most victims think they’re the only ones who have this happen, which is not the case,” Brodsky said. She even came across a famous blogger who gives advice to men on how to take off a condom without attracting attention. Many of his followers sincerely amused themselves and welcomed what he had done, and one even wrote that it was the duty of the woman to spread her legs, and of the man to scatter his semen.
The study found that even in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and New Zealand, where removing a condom is considered sexual violence, it is rarely prosecuted due to difficulties in proving intentions. Benefits are sought only for sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies.
A study published by the National Library of Medicine of the United States found that 12% of women aged 21 to 30 in 2019 had a bitter experience with benefits for safe sex. One in ten Americans has given up a condom to get more pleasure without asking if his partner agrees. A study in Australia the same year showed that a third of women and about 20% of men found themselves in a situation where they were trying to secretly remove a condom during intercourse.
More often this happens during paid love or homosexual contacts, which further confirms that it is an abuse of a dominant position. “Imagine how these people will feel when they learn that the state of California thinks they don’t deserve that kind of treatment. The law will allow sex workers to sue clients who remove condoms, and we hope to pave the way for further legal protection for the profession and other groups that are usually marginalized by the criminal justice system, ”said Cristina Garcia. It is proud to have succeeded in its state after attempts at similar legislation failed earlier in New York and Wisconsin.
There has been a lot of talk about the importance of seeking explicit consent to remove a condom around the request to extradite Julian Assange from England to Sweden on rape charges. The WikiLeaks founder was investigated by Swedish authorities for removing a condom while having sex with his admirer at a conference in Stockholm in 2010 and having another while sleeping. In both cases, he violated local law, which provides for explicit consent to have sexual intercourse.
In fact, Sweden holds the record for rape complaints filed with the police. Their percentage per capita is four times higher than in France or Germany, Deutsche Welle reports. Swedish politicians attribute this to a high degree of emancipation of women in the country, but only 10% of investigations end in convictions. This circumstance is usually explained by the fact that there are no witnesses to what happened and the judges have to proceed only from the testimony of the victim and the accused, which makes it difficult for them to judge fairly. A similar circumstance could be a problem for the implementation of the new law passed in California.
– .
