NY Gov. Cuomo Wants ‘Yes Means Yes’ Anti-Rape Rule on Private Campuses
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Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Saturday a proposal to expand the so-called “yes means yes” legislation to protect college students against rape.
Cuomo proposed a law to extend protections against sexual assaults that are already in place on the campuses of the state’s public colleges and universities to the state’s private schools.
“One out of four women will be a victim of a sexual attack during their academic years,” Cuomo said Saturday at a news conference at New York University. “That is breathtaking.”
The rule, which is already in place at the state-funded State University of New York (SUNY) schools, creates a safer environment for students by outlining expectations of responsibility, he said.
Former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, now a special adviser to the governor’s office, said the new law will give every school in New York a uniform definition of consent where “yes means yes” — requiring participants to explicitly agree to any sexual activity.
Quinn said Saturday college students are “re-victimized by the very institutions that they are a part of and the very institutions that should be there to support, help them, bring them justice.”
The 64 SUNY campuses adopted the sexual assault legislation last year.
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