Soon, stealthing to be illegal in Queensland

Under sweeping legislation that was presented to the Queensland parliament on Wednesday, removing a condom during sexual activity without the recipient’s consent will be considered rape and carry a possible sentence of life in prison if convicted. This practice is more widely known as “stealthing.”

As part of a paradigm based on affirmative consent, the new legislation that will be put into parliament would seek to make it a crime to remove or tamper with a condom without the recipient’s knowledge or consent.

In order to participate in sexual activities, one will need to provide their own free and informed consent under the affirmative consent paradigm, which is expected to be approved by parliament.

According to the information gathered by Australia, the measure will also attempt to criminalize coercive control. Under the proposed laws, judges will also be permitted to warn jurors of common misconceptions about sexual assault.

It is against the law to steal in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.

The Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce in the state made 188 suggestions in total the previous year, one of which was to pass anti-stealthing laws.

According to the second report that was compiled by the taskforce the previous year, the state of Queensland ought to “move to an affirmative model of consent in order to better reflect community expectations of equality & mutual respect in consensual sexual relationships and in order to drive change in the way sexual offenses are prosecuted and defended.”

“A person who practices’stealthing’ has changed the nature of the sexual act for which consent was given, is acting without consent, and should be prosecuted for the offence of rape,” it added. “Stealthing” is slang for the practice of performing sexual acts without the other person’s knowledge or consent.

The new legislation, according to the Attorney General of Queensland, Yvette D’Ath, are intended to dispel misunderstandings about rape, ensure the safety of Queensland residents, and bring perpetrators to justice.

“The Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce heard from victim-survivors of sexual violence who said they were traumatized by the offence and then re-traumatized by the justice system,” D’Ath said in a statement. “The taskforce heard from victim-survivors of sexual violence who said they were traumatized by the offence and then re-traumatized by the justice system.”

“The… taskforce discovered that sexual offense laws are frequently misunderstood, and narratives of rape myths and stereotypes, including narratives of ‘implied consent,’ still feature heavily in trials.”

The act of interfering with or tampering with a condom without the owner’s knowledge or consent “strikes at the heart of a person’s right to bodily autonomy and their right to choose whether and how to participate in a sexual activity,” according to D’Ath.

She said, “It is rape, and we are changing our laws to reflect this,” in reference to the act in question.

The director of the Gold Coast Centre Against Sexual Violence, Di Macleod, stated that she was in favor of the motion to classify stealthing as the same crime as rape.

She stated, “I welcome the introduction of these laws by the state government to better reflect the reality of sexual violence and to increase victim-survivors’ access to justice.” “These laws will better reflect the reality of sexual violence and will increase victim-survivors’ access to justice,” she said.