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 Lady Gaga - herself a victim of sexual assault - and Cuomo
issued a joint op-ed urging New York state lawmakers to pass
legislation on sexual assault on college campuses.
The call comes after a study last month found sexual violence on
U.S. campuses has hit "epidemic levels" with more than 18
percent of female students at one university reporting incidents
of rape or attempted rape in their first year.
"Today, too many college students experience sexual assault, too
few of the assailants are prosecuted, and too often the
survivors lack the resources they need to recover," Lady Gaga
and Cuomo wrote in an essay for Billboard magazine.
The bill before New York's legislature would give the state the
nation's strongest laws to target campus sexual assault, and
"turn the tide on this issue so that students can realize their
dreams on campuses that are safe spaces", they said.
Lawmakers have until June 17 to pass the bill introduced by
Cuomo earlier this year that would extend a sexual assault
prevention and response policy at the State University of New
York to all public and private universities in the state.
The legislation, which expands on a law adopted in California
last year, includes four points: affirmative consent language,
immunity from drug or alcohol violations for students reporting
an assault, a bill of rights for the victim, and policy training
for all school officials.
The legislation defines consent as a clear, unambiguous, and
voluntary agreement between the participants to engage in
specific sexual activity.
In New York, less than 5 percent of rapes on college campuses
are reported to law enforcement, and only 16 percent of
survivors receive victim support, Lady Gaga and Cuomo wrote.
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"Making a bad situation worse, college officials sometimes fear
negative publicity against their school if assaults are reported to
the police," they said.
"As a result, these victims are not only deprived justice, they are
denied the opportunity to tell their stories publicly. Being able to
speak about such difficult experiences openly is fundamental to
easing a survivor’s recovery and to removing the shame that still
shrouds sexual assault."
College campuses reported nearly 5,000 forcible sex offenses in 2012
alone, according to U.S. Department of Education data cited on
Cuomo's website.
In that time, there were 365 forcible sex offenses reported by
campuses in New York State, 72 of which were in New York City.
Lady Gaga, 29, has spoken out in support of the rights of lesbians,
gays, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT), and in 2012 launched
the Born This Way Foundation to combat bullying and empower children
to create a "kinder and braver world".
In an interview last year, she said she was sexually assaulted at
age 19 by a producer and that the song "Swine" from her latest album
"Artpop" is about rape.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani, editing by Alisa Tang. Please credit
the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson
Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption
and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
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