Maryland has changed its rape laws Tuesday so that victims no longer have to prove that they physically resisted being assaulted, BuzzFeed News reports. Previously, verbal resistance, including saying "no," was not enough to constitute a rape charge. With this new definition, no actually means no.
The Maryland General Assembly passed legislation changing the legal definition of rape to say that "evidence of physical resistance by a victim is not required to prove that a sexual crime was committed." Under the previous definition, assaulting an unconscious victim didn't count as rape, because the victim wouldn't be able to physically resist. Obviously, that was a problem.
The new definition will “bring Maryland out of the Stone Ages," Sen. Delores Kelley of Baltimore County told The Baltimore Sun back in February, when the bill was still in limbo. Kelley was one of the senators who sponsored the legislation, along with Maryland Delegate Kathleen Dumais.
"Sexual assault survivors will no longer be forced to choose between keeping safe or having access to justice," Lisae Jordan, executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, told BuzzFeed News. "'No' will mean 'no' and the law will back them up." Jordan told CBS News that when advocates reviewed cases where "it was concluded that rape had not occurred," they found that in a third of those cases, victims had verbally resisted but not physically resisted.
“People were crying, they were saying stop, they were saying please no—but they didn’t kick, they didn’t hit, they didn’t push back and law enforcement said sorry ma'am, that’s not rape in Maryland,” Jordan said.
The new law will take effect in October, CBS reports.