Lawmakers Call for ‘Stealthing’ to Be Classified as Rape
U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) announced on Wednesday that they would push lawmakers to have “stealthing,” or nonconsensual condom removal, classified as rape.
In a letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee, Maloney and Khanna called for a hearing on stealthing, which gained widespread attention when Alexandra Brodsky published an article that envisioned potential legal responses to it in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law in April. While her research has prompted a public conversation on the phenomenon, Maloney and Khanna’s letter is the first indication that the nation’s top elected officials will look into the crime. (Lawmakers in Wisconsin and California have introduced bills that would expand the definitions of consent and rape to include those who remove a condom without consent or otherwise tamper with sexual protection without the other person’s knowledge.)
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