France’s Parliament Is Set to Debate Changing Rape Law to Include Consent – The New York Times
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Excerpt:
After dozens of men were convicted of raping a drugged Gisèle Pelicot, lawmakers moved to require that consent be given for sex to be considered consensual.
Many countries require that consent be given before sex — and have written that into their rape laws. France is not among them.
Now two lawmakers hope to change that, and they got a step closer Tuesday night when the lower house of the French Parliament passed a bill that expands the definition of rape to include nonconsensual penetration.
Their cause gained traction after a horrific trial last fall in which dozens of men were convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was in a deeply drugged state.
“This is a starting point, not a final one,” Marie-Charlotte Garin, one of the two lawmakers who proposed the bill, told the National Assembly after the vote. “We are moving from a culture of rape to a culture of consent, and this is the first stone we are throwing against the wall of impunity.”
