For the first time in more than 40 years, Vermont’s sexual consent laws are about to be updated.
The new law will state that consent is the “affirmative, unambiguous and voluntary” agreement to engage in a sexual act, and that consent can be revoked at any time.
That language, which is at the crux of H.183, was approved unanimously on the Senate floor Thursday after a tumultuous few weeks in committee.
The bill — which clarifies that people who are physically incapable of resisting or mentally incapable of understanding a sexual act cannot consent, nor can people who are asleep, unconscious, or substantially impaired by drugs or alcohol — nearly didn’t make it out of the Senate Committee on Judiciary earlier this session.
During a committee discussion on April 23, a suggestion was raised that the majority of the bill could be scrapped (at least until next year), except for a section that would allocate $40,000 to expand forensic nursing services for sexual violence survivors in more rural parts of the state.
However, after a small wave of backlash, the bill came back in full force.
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Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said his committee “went through an awful lot of work to get this right.” He said that was of special concern, given the severity of the consequences of sexual assault: a three-year minimum sentence and a maximum of life in prison.
Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, a survivor of campus sexual assault, asked her colleagues, as they voted on the legislation, to remember that that severity is felt particularly strongly for survivors.
The bill approved Thursday even included a once-slashed proposal to establish and fund an intercollegiate sexual violence prevention council. The idea is to help colleges, survivors and advocates come together to think about best practices and big-picture solutions to the problem of sexual violence on campuses.
That section had been cut from the bill by the Senate Committee on Judiciary, which said the intercollegiate council could operate independently without state funding and support.
Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden, said it didn’t make sense to him to obligate the state for so long on something that could be happening on its own.
However, when Hardy heard that the section had been removed, she reached out to Sears, the committee chair, and asked him to work with the Senate Committee on Education to find a way to establish the council.
Then, after thousands of UVM students walked out of their classes earlier this month to demand justice for survivors of sexual assault on campus, senators on the education committee said it became clear how vital the council might be in addressing the problem of sexual assault where it is felt the most strongly — on college campuses.
A similar task force was formed in 2019, but it met for only nine months. The new group would continue to meet until 2025 — enough time to begin making institutional changes at Vermont campuses.
The Senate approved the amendment unanimously, about $13,000 to help pay the council’s staff.
“Institutional change is never easy, and this one must be one of the hardest,” said Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden. “Hopefully (the intercollegiate council) can make recommendations that can begin to turn the Titanic.”
