Rape; accomplished by ruse or trickery. (SB20)

Sounds like the prisons will be over loaded with salesman. How do people like this Richard Stuart ever get elected by more than 1 vote.

So, if a couple gets engaged, one breaks it off...could one charge the other for Rape?
Any lawyer will tell you that in the courts, it doesn't matter what is right, it is what can be proven.

We looked up the definition of ruse and trickery when this bill was submitted as we could not imagine how a physical act of rape could fall under either term.

The definition of Ruse directed me to the definition of trick.

Trick: A crafty or underhanded device, maneuver, stratagem, or the like, intended to deceive or cheat; artifice; ruse; wile. An optical illusion. A mischievous act; practical joke; or prank.

How can we be considering adding these two terms to our legal statute of rape?

Force, threat and intimidation make sense, but trickery and ruse could be twisted into numerous examples of where a willing participant has second thoughts or regrets the following morning or following week for an act in which they were previously a willing participant.

Remember the 1977 song by Meatloaf called Paradise by the Dashboard Lights. The teenagers are in an automobile and “they plan to go all the way tonight”. But the girl wants to hear him say he loves her until the end of time before they do in fact “go all the way”. She makes him promise to love her forever in return for sex, and as many hormonal young men would ….. He declares his love to her forever so that she will “go all the way” with him. Afterwards as most of us know the song so well, “he’s praying for the end of time”. Was this a ruse or trickery or did he or she coerce the other into this act? Let’s face it many of us were in similar situations when we were young. But SB20 would turn this comedic song of young angst and hormones into a felony; it would turn the man into a rapist, and a registered sex offender for life.

Would the phrase “come on baby, I love you…..please” uttered time and time again in the heat of the moment now be an opening line for a rape? I believe by adding these two new terms to the statute… it does.

There is a very big difference between “if you love me …..you would” and “if you don’t do this….. I’ll kill you”. SB20 would make them one in the same.

At some point we as a society need to be accountable for our actions and decisions. In Virginia today a female who claims they were too drunk or on drugs to consent to sex can claim rape even if the man was also too drunk or on drugs himself to remember the entire encounter. The Commonwealth claims he committed a crime that he should have known better even if he was in the same inebriated condition the female was. Conversely, if a drunk female drives and gets caught she will be charged with a DUI. Our state claims she should have known better, she shouldn’t have been driving. We hold people accountable for one thing but not for the other, it makes no sense. If a female or male has sex because of something the other person has told them and in the end it isn’t true, that’s not rape that’s just a gullible person who now regrets casual sex and wants to punish the other person to feel better about their misguided choice.

We would have to assume if trickery constitutes rape then exaggerating your wealth or your social status on Facebook would make a one night stand based on that incorrect information a rape too? Any gold-digger who had sex based on false information could later cry rape if the Commonwealth opens this door.

Making hallow promises or out-and-out lying to someone prior to a sex act does not equal rape and our state should not consider it as such.

Isn’t it time that we hold both the man and the woman equally responsible when it comes to bad decisions.

The Government cannot continue with the notion that the female is the weaker of the species and as such a perpetual victim.

Making a poor decision does not make you a victim.

The Virginia rape statute needs to remain as is.
Rape is rape, it is not regret by the light of day.

This has to be Stuart's April Fools joke. What idiocy.