The fraternity Sigma Nu Fraternity has recently made headlines for all of the wrong reasons. The fraternity joins a long list of fraternities that have engaged in numerous incidents of sexual assault. The president of the Epsilon Omicron Chapter at the University of Southern California, Ryan Schiffilea, was recently suspended after reports of possible drug-facilitated…
Sexual assault is legally defined as the act of sexual contact or behavior without consent from the victim. As many people know, sexual assault can take many forms. Some examples of sexual assault can be attempted rape, forced unwanted touching, forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, and forced penetration of the victim’s body. In…
A bill headed to the governor’s desk could add California to the over two dozen states that allow survivors of sexual assault to track and receive updates regarding the status of their rape kits online. The goal of this legislation is to provide survivors a private and secure way to monitor the status of their…
Under state law, all California companies with five or more employees must provide sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training to all employees, both supervisory and non-supervisory. Before 2019, training was only required for companies with 50 or more employees, so this is a welcome expansion. However, some people are asking, especially in the wake…
Legislation recently passed in the California Senate aims to protect employees who speak out about discrimination experienced at work, even if they’ve signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). This law would expand protections laid out in a previous act banning NDAs in cases of sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination, signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2018. Both…
Ron Jeremy, 68-year-old porn star, was recently indicted by a grand jury on more than 30 counts of sexual assault. The charges included: 12 counts of forcible rape 7 counts of forcible oral copulation 6 counts of sexual battery by restraint 4 counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object 2 counts of sexual penetration…
State legislators sent a bill to Governor Newson’s desk on September 7 that would make the act of “stealthing” punishable under the law, setting the stage for California to be the first in the nation to pass such a law. Stealthing is the act of secretive and nonconsensual condom removal during the act of sexual…
Although federal and state law prohibit workplace discrimination based on things like age, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, millions of Americans still experience harassment or loss of employment simply due to who they are. This type of discrimination is illegal for protected classes, and it is crucial as a transgender or non-binary employee that…
Tech giant Apple recently announced plans to begin testing a new system that would scan iPhone and iCloud accounts for photos that match a database of known child pornography and sexual abuse images. When found and verified, Apple would alert the necessary authorities. This announcement was part of a larger push on behalf of the…
A recent report from the RAND Corporation found that sexual assaults on non-heterosexual service members comprise nearly half of all military assaults. Because most research only focuses on the dangers and risks women face in the military, this study shines a light on another vulnerable population, as well as points to areas needing further examination…