Quote: "Lawmakers say, however, that consent can be non-verbal, if it is unambiguous." Which means nothing has changed -- non-verbal consent has always been a

Quote: "Lawmakers say, however, that consent can be non-verbal, if it is unambiguous." Which means nothing has changed -- non-verbal consent has always been a possibility, and later, a reason to argue in court about whether non-verbal consent had been given. Non-verbal consent in the relations between the sexes has always had the standing of a verbal contract in business -- as San Goldwyn supposedly said, a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on. (In keeping with our topic, Goldwyn didn't actually say that.) I have some advice for young people who may be navigating their way around this issue for the first time -- here are the rules: 1. No means no, absolutely, full stop. Never ignore this signal, ever. 2. Yes means maybe. 3. There is no "yes means yes" -- it doesn't exist. No matter how many laws are passed, no matter how clear the signals, a person can always claim that something happened that differs from your recollection, and that can sometimes lead to a huge raft of trouble. The concise way of describing such situations is, "He said, she said." This new law doesn't (and can't) change the fact that some sexual encounters will end up being a case of "He said, she said." The tl;dr: no means no, and yes means maybe.