Rodin’s figure of The Thinker was originally cast for his design of “The Gates of Hell,” the entrance way to a museum that was never built. It’s planned use seems analogous to the harm all rape victims endure, regardless of how they were raped. And it’s high time all of society rethinks what constitutes sex vs. what constitutes sexual assault!

Laws set the stage for moral reasoning and should apply to all things, equally

The “truths” stated in law cannot alter at our convenience or self-serving interests.

The Sex Trafficking Protection Act of 2000 is expressed in Federal Public Law 106-386, Sections 103/8a&b and 9. It was adopted under the Clinton administration and ratified by each subsequent President, including Trump. Sex trafficking and Severe Sex Trafficking are defined as follows:

• (8) SEVERE FORMS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS- The term `severe forms of trafficking in persons’ means–

• • (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or

• • (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

• (9) SEX TRAFFICKING- The term `sex trafficking’ means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act.

So why not sexual assault?

Are we to perceive the exchange of money is the only means to separate when nonconsensual sex is committed vs. “boys being boys.” (Feel free to read this as “girls being girls” when a female acts as the aggressor.)

We often hear that the federal government cannot impose penal code on the states as the reason we have no federal ban against sexual assault, but sex trafficking is clearly banned and defined by law. And the exact same behaviors that makes it a crime to traffic someone – force, fraud or coercion – should make it a crime to sexually exploit a person by force, fraud or coercion……. but people scoff at the idea and say rape by fraud is a crazy concept that laws should not protect against.

People who are defrauded for sex are not only raped by the offender, they are invalidated by a society that refuses to recognize their pain – causing them far greater turmoil. They are turned away by the police, and even by rape services that are publicly funded to provide support to rape victims. People damaged by rape by fraud number in the millions, yet they are never included in rape statistics. If you are defrauded for sex by someone who makes money by doing so, they’re a criminal. But when they defraud you of sex for their own personal perversion, they’re not? Surely, our laws should do better!

Every American pledges allegiance to the same flag and deserves the same protections whether they are sex trafficked or not!

There oughttabe a federal law! 

Consent never occurs unless each party’s agreement is freely given, knowledgeable and informed agreement. #FGKIA! Agreement can’t be forced, defrauded or coerced in order to qualify as consent. You don’t have to be trafficked to be violated! Rape is rape no matter what the motive behind it!

Call your legislators and demand sexual assault law in your state and throughout our nation! Use your voice to make the world a safer place!

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