By 
California has made it illegal to remove a condom during sex without verbal consent, a practice popularly known as “stealthing.”
Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Thursday that classifies the removal of a condom without consent as “sexual battery.”
“By passing this bill, we are underlining the importance of consent,” the governor’s office said in a tweet.
Cristina Garcia, a member of the California assembly who introduced the bill, said it ensures that “stealthing isn’t only immoral but illegal.”
The California law is the first in the country to specifically ban “stealthing,” which can expose a partner to unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.
Under the bill, a person commits sexual battery who “causes contact between a sexual organ, from which a condom has been removed, and the intimate part of another who did not verbally consent to the condom being removed.”
An offender is liable for punitive damages that would be awarded by a court.
The practice of “stealthing” attracted attention in the United States after a paper was published by a doctoral student, Alexandra Brodsky, in 2017 in the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law.
Brodsky’s paper noted that there were online forums that provided information on how to successfully commit “stealthing,” some of which were subsequently shut down.
(AFP)
Cat: news
Voter apathy recorded in Plateau LG polls
Joy DOVIE
The ongoing Local Government election in Plateau recorded voter apathy in Jos, the state capital, as most residents of the city shunned the exercise.
A NAN correspondent who visited some polling units in Jos North and Jos South local government areas reported that the people showed scant interest in the polls.
Some of the areas visited were Hwolshe, Tudun Wada, Jenta Adamu, Gyel, Bukuru low-cost, Rantya, Sha’aka, Abattoir, Zawan, among others, all in Jos North and Jos South Local government areas.
In Zawan district of Jos South, for instance, residents shunned the election in order to bury their loved ones, while others simply went to their farms.
At the polling unit located at the College of Mary Immaculate (CMI), Zawan, 12 security personnel were seen on ground with just six voters sighted trying to cast their votes.
Mr Pam Dung, attributed the low turnout to the disqualification of the major opposition party in the state, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Dung explained that the disqualification of the PDP was enough reason for him not to go out to vote.
“I’m not happy today because this is the first time in the history of this state that the PDP will not participate in the local government election.
“As far as I am concerned, it is only one party that is participating in the election today and I can’t waste my time and energy to go for such an election where we all know the result even before the end of the polls,” he said.
Another resident, Mr Ndibusi Emeka, said: “People will prefer to go to their farms than come here and participate in an exercise where they know that the vote won’t count.
“As a businessman, if not for the sit-at-home order, I will rather go to my shop where I make my daily earning than come here to waste my time,” he said.
However, Nandom Wuyep, another resident, expressed joy that the election had so far been peaceful and prayed that it remained so till the end of the exercise.
“I am happy because there is no violence here; you can see nobody is causing problems to the electoral officials.
“I pray and hope that the election will be conducted in some areas with the same atmosphere even with the voter apathy,” he said.
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