Gov signs Queens pols’ Rape is Rape bill
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Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill pushed by Queens Assemblymember Catalina Cruz on Tuesday which expands the definition of rape to include different forms of non-consensual contact.
By Ryan Schwach
Governor Kathy Hochul signed a Queens assemblymember’s bill, which looks to expand the state’s definition of rape, into law on Tuesday.
The Rape is Rape bill, sponsored by Queens Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, removes the penetration requirement from rape statutes and defines rape as sexual intercourse, oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct. The governor and proponents of the bill say it will make it easier to prosecute those accused of rape and make the law fairer for the LGBTQ community.
“For decades, survivors who already struggle to come to terms with what has happened to them have been told that the horrible criminal acts committed against them are not statutorily categorized as rape,” said Cruz. “This is because our state's current law is enshrined in outdated gendered notions of rape, and instead it creates various categories of sexual assault for what is clearly rape.”
Cruz has championed the bill for the last three years, after the previous sponsor, former Queens Assemblymember Aravella Simotas left the legislature.
On Tuesday, Cruz called the bill “a systematic shift in how we think about who is a rape victim and who is a rapist.”
“The law does not recognize the forcible sexual acts of rape and our laws have failed to understand the reality of sexual assault, the reality of violence, the reality that our law has failed survivors,” said Cruz, herself a victim of child sexual abuse. “Forced sexual contact against your will whether it involves vagina, anus or mouth is an absolute violation of self and your trust, and calling it anything other than rape negates what we as survivors have endured.”
Hochul signed the bill from the Capitol in Albany on Tuesday morning.
“Today is about the survivors,” she said. “It's about aligning the letter of the law with the pain in their hearts. It's about calling out vile and horrific acts for what they are so survivors can reclaim their power and dignity. It's about backing them with the full force of our justice system so those who commit rape are charged accordingly.”
Hochul said that currently, it’s very difficult to prosecute rape due to the “narrow terms” of the law.
“Confronting it is how you eventually move forward and take back your power,” she said. “On the flip side, if we refuse to call something what it is, we as a society refuse to say rape is rape. We invalidate the survivors, trivialize their pain, and ultimately intensify their trauma.”
The Senate sponsor of the bill, Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, applauded the women at the forefront of pushing the bill, and spoke of how the new language serves to protect the LGBTQ community.
“Sexual assault could only be considered rape in a very narrow set of circumstances that depended on those narrow set of circumstances, this outdated definition is not only heteronormative and offensive, it simply wasn't true,” he said. “Studies have shown that nearly half of transgender people in this country are sexually assaulted, nearly half at some point in their lives. The numbers are similar for bisexual women and gay men. But before today, many of those assaults wouldn't be able to be classified as rapists in New York State.”
The bill had previously passed the State Assembly in a 129 to 12 vote in February of last year.
