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Redefine Rape: Support the Rape is Rape bill

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To: Governor Cuomo, Speaker Silver, and Majority Leaders Skelos & Klein

Redefine Rape: Pass Assemblymember Simotas’ Rape is Rape bill this year

We are adamant in expressing our support for Assemblymember Aravella Simotas’s Rape-is-Rape legislation, Assembly Bill 3339 and Senate Bill S06877. As it stands, the legal definition of rape is insufficient to protect...

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Redefine Rape: Pass Assemblymember Simotas’ Rape is Rape bill this year

We are adamant in expressing our support for Assemblymember Aravella Simotas’s Rape-is-Rape legislation, Assembly Bill 3339 and Senate Bill S06877. As it stands, the legal definition of rape is insufficient to protect victims of non-vaginal rape from effectively obtaining justice. We urge you to take expedited action to facilitate the passage of the Rape-is-Rape bill as soon as possible, which would change the definition of rape to include all forcible sexual acts.
25,000

26,048 people signed the petition

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Lydia Cuomo had been preparing to start her dream job as an elementary school teacher at a Bronx charter school in August 2011 when she was forced into anal and oral sex by a cop who threatened her with a gun.
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Former Officer Michael Pena, who pleaded guilty to rape charges after his first trial resulted in a hung jury on those counts, receiving 10 years to life in addition to the 75 years to life he had already gotten on sex counts in his initial trial. Although Cuomo recognizes he would have spent a long time behind bars whether or not he was convicted of raping her, she said the wording is important. “A lot of change needs to happen around rape and the word 'rape' and this is my way of doing it,” she said.
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The scene where off-duty NYPD officer Michael Pena allegedly raped Cuomo at Park Terrace West and West 217th St.
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Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas introduced a bill last year that would have expanded the definition of "rape," but it went nowhere.
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Lydia Cuomo. Eight states include forced oral and anal sex in the definition of "rape."
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  • Lydia Cuomo had been preparing to start her dream job as an elementary school teacher at a Bronx charter school in August 2011 when she was forced into anal and oral sex by a cop who threatened her with a gun.
  • Former Officer Michael Pena, who pleaded guilty to rape charges after his first trial resulted in a hung jury on those counts, receiving 10 years to life in addition to the 75 years to life he had already gotten on sex counts in his initial trial. Although Cuomo recognizes he would have spent a long time behind bars whether or not he was convicted of raping her, she said the wording is important. “A lot of change needs to happen around rape and the word 'rape' and this is my way of doing it,” she said.
  • The scene where off-duty NYPD officer Michael Pena allegedly raped Cuomo at Park Terrace West and West 217th St.
  • Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas introduced a bill last year that would have expanded the definition of "rape," but it went nowhere.
  • Lydia Cuomo. Eight states include forced oral and anal sex in the definition of "rape."

"What does a woman have to do to prove she was raped?"

Hello I'm Lydia Cuomo,

I had been raped and now it felt like I was being traumatized all over again This time it was in a courtroom, my family and friends were there, my rapist and his attorney, and the public.

He had already confessed. My family were in front row seats for the detailed account of how their little girl, a school teacher, walking on her way to work, dragged by a New York City police officer into an alley at gunpoint, and forced into oral, anal and vaginal sex. 

The rape was brutal, reliving it in public and in front of my family and rapist...indescribable.  

Now, at the end of that long trial and sitting feet from my rapist and in front of my family, I found out that my jury was going to hang. Guilty verdict on two counts of criminal sexual acts, for the oral and anal assaults, but they hung, and I would have a mistrial on the rape charges.

Mistrial? How can that be? He confessed!

It's then explained, rather matter of factly, that New York state law requires vagnial penetration in order to call it rape, and since vaginal penetration could not be proven, I was told my rape was only a sexual assault.

To call what happened 'sexual assault' is a crime itself. Right is right, he raped me at the end of the day, and he's not being called a rapist. He is a rapist, and now New York need to call rape, rape because it doesn't matter whether or not is is oral, anal, or vaginal, they are all a gross and violent violation when you are the one being raped.

Trust me, there's nothing sexual about it — it was detestable, a disgusting violation. 
I was raped. Raped, like thousands of others are every year in New York, many men too, only some, like me, don't get to call it rape, and that's just wrong.

Someone please tell me what a woman has to do to prove she was raped?

New York, with your help, I'm convinced we can change these arcane laws that do more to protect rapists than their victims.   

If you believe that rape should be called rape, please share the petition so we can get this law passed and protect other women and men from brutal assaults like this.

Thank you,

Lydia

PS.  Thank you for sharing this with your friends so they have the opportunity to support this too.  All of us working together can #stopabuse!

With thanks to KENNETH LOVETT  and the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS for their reporting.  You can read more of my story here: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/survivor-expand-ny-rape-statutes-article-1.1260437#ixzz2KbzqbP7d

Issues: ,

Location: New York, NY

Update on May 16, 2013

Thank you to everybody who signed our petition in the last few days.  We still need to get the bill passed through the senate where your 25,000 signatures on this petition are already making a difference.   Some people are still pushing a point of view that …

Update on May 13, 2013

We need just 75 signatures to drive this petition over 25,000 signatures? Can you help by hitting that big green button and inviting your friends?New York's leadership need to hear from everybody right now that it's time to call a rape what it is, a rape. …

Update on March 18, 2013

I don't know about you but here in Harlem we were relieved at the result of the Steubenville trial over the weekend, we're also happy that the Ohio Attorney General …
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