Article here. Excerpt:

'New York is one of the three states — along with California and Michigan — that have passed these new consent laws. The law requires a clear, affirmative agreement between partners. By stating the consent, it creates a victim’s bill of rights and boosts training for law enforcement, faculty and students.

However, students expressed concern that the new policy is ambiguous and makes it more difficult for those accused of sexual assault to defend themselves. While the legislation may have caused confusion among college campuses, experts say the increase in sexual assault reports reflect an increase in reporting incidents rather than a vague policy.

Article here. Excerpt:

'By a 23 - 15 margin, the Florida Senate has passed Senate Bill 250 that would establish the presumption that equal parenting time is in a child’s best interests. The bill, sponsored by Senator Tom Lee, allows deviation from the equal time standard in a number of different situations, including when parents agree to a different arrangement. Read about it here (Tampa Bay Times, 2/23/16).

"Under current law, judges are supposed to consider 20 criteria and “the best interests of the child” when they write an order. But Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, who sponsored the legislation (SB 250) says the child’s wellbeing is an end goal and that to accomplish that, it’s in the best interests of kids to split time evenly with both parents whenever possible...

“As we look at other child welfare policies that we enact, we always start with the assumption that if it’s in best interest of the child, we want both parents involved and that we want both parents to take responsibility,” said Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Catharine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, told a group of college administrators Monday that she would have no reservations about pulling a university's funding if it showed a pattern of mishandling cases of sexual violence on campus.

Lhamon was speaking at a summit on sexual assault hosted at Dartmouth College, one of the 67 colleges and universities currently under investigation by Lhamon's agency over concerns that they did not properly handle sexual violence cases. Colleges are required under the gender equity law Title IX to address sexual assault and harassment on campus. The ultimate punishment for a school violating Title IX is a complete loss of federal funding. No disciplinary procedure has ever gone that far, but Lhamon emphasized that the option is always on the table.

Article here. Excerpt:

'An upcoming comedy festival in New York City is charging different rates for attendees in an apparent effort to check the privilege of straight white men.

The Cinderblock Comedy Festival will be held Sept. 15-18 in the hipster stronghold of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. With the festivities just seven months away, organizers are already urging potential performers to apply to perform.

But the festival has one very notable policy: Currently, only women, non-whites and those who identify as LGBT are allowed to apply for an early-bird price of $19.25. Straight white men, on the other hand, will only be allowed to apply starting March 15, and they’ll have to pay $25 to do so.

Festival director Coree Spencer said the discount was intended to closely match the oft-quoted and oft-criticized statistic that women earn just 77 percent of what men earn.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'North Carolina Congresswoman Virginia Foxx questioned the Education Department's overreach when it comes to campus sexual assaultduring a hearing on Wednesday.

The congresswoman directed her question to Dr. John King, the acting secretary of the Education Department, who is currently going through the confirmation process to officially become head of the department.

"I'm very concerned about what's happening within your department's Office for Civil Rights and its impact on college campuses across the country," Foxx said. "For too long the OCR has gone around Congress by legislating a new mission and I'm deeply concerned about the office's legitimacy and effectiveness on these issues and the potential negative impact on students and institutions."'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Harvard University remains at the forefront of the debate over campus sexual assault, even as a panel of Harvard students and professors meets to consider additional changes to the University’s disciplinary procedures under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination by educational institutions that receive federal funding.

The committee, convened earlier this month and chaired by former interim Dean of the College Donald H. Pfister, is charged with examining data from the campus climate survey released September 21. That survey, conducted by the Association of American Universities on behalf of Harvard and 27 other colleges, sought to assess the level of reported and unreported harassment and assault on campus.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A federal judge is allowing to proceed a lawsuit accusing Brown University of gender-bias in its handling of a sexual assault investigation against a male student suspended by the Ivy League school following a probe.

U.S. District Chief Judge William E. Smith declined to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a former student, identified as John Doe, who alleges that Brown violated his rights and discriminated against him based on his gender in its handling of an alleged sexual misconduct complaint.

Doe filed suit in April after being suspended from Brown for 2½ years based on sexual misconduct allegations brought by a female student that he had fondled and kissed after meeting her at a dormitory party in October 2014. Doe was enrolled in the Class of 2017, earned straight A’s his freshman year, and hoped to pursue a career in neuroscience, the lawsuit says.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A debate featuring controversial public figures Julie Bindel and Milo Yiannopoulos took place Tuesday night in the ballroom of the Michigan League.

During the debate, the two speakers exchanged arguments about feminism, debating whether the feminist movement impedes an individual's freedom of speech.

Hosted by The Michigan Review, the event drew a crowd of several hundred people, some of whom drove across state lines to hear the pair.

Engineering senior Hunter Swogger, one of the event organizers, said the Review wanted to bring Bindel and Yiannopoulos’ voices to the University’s campus in order to expose the campus to new ideas.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'An “Introduction to Linguistics” instructor at the University of Maryland allegedly accused a male student of “mansplaining” after he questioned her claim about sexism in job titles.

“Look, it’s really cute that you, as a white male, would tell me what I’m not allowed to be offended by, as a minority female,” the instructor tells the unidentified student in an audio recording posted on Reddit over the weekend. “Thank you so much for doing that; that’s called ‘mansplaining,’ so stop.”

The rebuke was prompted by the student’s attempt to understand her assertion that the suffixes “–ette” and “–ess” are “diminutive,” and therefore “infantilizing,” which was made in relation to the term “poetess.” The student says he understands that “-ette” has a diminutive root in French, but questions whether the same is true of the other suffix.

“The point is: same job, same title,” the instructor replies. “If she’s writing those poems with her cunt, then it’s a difference, but she’s not; she’s writing poems based on the fact that she has fought in two wars, which is more than her fiancée has ever done.”

“But you shouldn’t have a problem, I guess, with two different, like, titles, because—” the student attempts to respond, only to be cut off and accused of “mansplaining” before he could articulate his point.

The student gamely continues, saying, “I’m curious as to why you take offense.”

“I think I just told you,” she says. “I think I just told you that you’re choosing not to agree with me, and through that, you’re choosing to explain why I should agree with you, coming from a position of privilege, having never experienced what I’ve experienced.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The woman at the center of Rolling Stone magazine’s now-retracted story about a rape at the University of Virginia has been ordered to appear in court to answer questions as part of a civil suit.

“The court believes that a one-day, seven-hour deposition will be sufficient,” Judge Glen Conrad wrote in a court order this week, calling for the woman identified only as Jackie to appear in court on April 5, Newsweek reported.

Jackie will be deposed as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by Nicole Eramo, an associate dean at the University of Virginia, against Rolling Stone, the magazine’s owner, Wenner Media, and Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the writer of the controversial story “A Rape on Campus.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If the House Education Committee wanted advice on topics to bring up with acting Education Secretary John King at its Wednesday hearing on the department’s “policies and priorities,” it got a targeted list from a former Ed lawyer.

Hans Bader, who served in the Office for Civil Rights, wrote a blistering analysis of a letter sent by that office’s chief to Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who heads the Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee and has asked what authority OCR has to issue substantive new regulations in everything but name.

OCR’s Catherine Lhamon basically told Lankford that her office didn’t need to go through a notice-and-comment proceeding before issuing its controversial “Dear Colleague” letters because they only purported to explain current law, not enforce new regulations.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'If this man were a true advocate for women’s rights, he would give space to women in politics to express their viewpoints and then support them. He cannot successfully advocate for women because he is participating (with the best intentions) in an institution that has systematically oppressed women for most of history. He should be giving a seat at the table to a woman.

Feminism is about space for women, plain and simple. Feminists are used to not being taken seriously by the patriarchy, and I find that a man who uses his male privilege to speak on behalf of women is no better than someone who actively oppresses women. The voices of men in feminist activism do not count as much as the women’s, even though they are greatly appreciated.

A man should never voice actively in feminist advocacy, but he can aid the feminist cause.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'“The law is a ass – a idiot,” declared Mr Bumble in Charles Dicken's classic novel Oliver Twist, which was released 178 years ago to the month.

Bumble would have no doubt have added some choice expletives to his observation if he’d been in Blackfriars Crown Court in London last week, to witness the unjust case brought against Mark Pearson.

Pearson, a 51-year-old artist, was tried for a sex crime simply because he brushed past a female film star during rush hour at Waterloo Tube station without even breaking his stride.

His accuser (who shall remain anonymous for life) claimed Pearson penetrated her with three fingers for “two or three seconds”.

Article here. Excerpt:

'What’s preventing college-aged men from addressing their role in rape culture on campus? Mention rape and alarms set off in many male college students’ minds. We, as males, must cut off the flashing red lights, silence the blaring sirens and recognize the issues that are staring right back at us in the mirror.

This may not come naturally to us because we live in a society that perpetuates rape culture and rape myths. We’ve all heard the statistic that one in five women is sexually assaulted while they attend college, but we’ve failed to make a concerted effort to reduce this rate. Instead, we brush sexual assault cases aside, encourage victim blaming and allow misconceptions surrounding gender-based violence to prevail.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Male students have become a rare breed in UK universities.

They were first outnumbered by women as far back as 1992 and, since then, the gender gap has increased annually.

Statistics released by Ucas last week show that this year almost 100,000 more women than men have applied for a university place. In England, women are 36 per cent more likely to submit an application than their male peers; among those from disadvantaged backgrounds this rises to 58 per cent.