This Law In NC Protects Men Who Keep Having Sex After They Are Told ‘No’

Amy Guy was in her apartment in December of 2016 when her estranged husband, Jonathan Guy, showed up to her door inebriated and demanded sex from her.

Amy agreed.

She told WRAL News,

Since he was getting angry, I figured it would be better to go ahead and agree to the sex because I figured that was the safer thing for me to do.

At this point, her sexual experience is already a form of sexual assault, called coercion, but still, things got worse.

Jonathan got violent and refused to stop when Amy told him to.

He was initially charged with second-degree rape, but it was reduced to a misdemeanor assault, based on an archaic North Carolina law that says a woman cannot withdraw consent if she is already mid-act.

Yes, that means North Carolina does not allow women to change their own minds during sex.

Yes, in 2017, Jonathan only did 10 months in jail for rape.

The law comes from the "State vs. Way" case.

In the 1979 State of North Carolina v. Donnie Leon Way case, the court ruled that it only acknowledges withdrawal of consent if two people have had sex multiple times.

The ruling specifically reads,

It is true that consent can be withdrawn. This concept ordinarily applies, however, to those situations in which there is evidence of more than one act of intercourse between the prosecutrix and the accused. It is uncontroverted that there was only one act of sexual intercourse involved in this case.

If there is only one encounter, The law says,

If the actual penetration is accomplished with the woman's consent, the accused is not guilty of rape, although he may be guilty of another crime because of his subsequent actions.

There you have it, people.

"Stop," "no" and "don't" mean nothing to the North Carolina court system, even in rape cases like Amy Guy's, when the survivor faces the threat of violence.

Rulings like this ignore many factors that might make a woman change her mind.

There are so many reasons why a woman might consent to sex and then change her mind - the primary one being, she has the damn right.

Other reasons are often caused by a change in the nature of the sex.

Consider the "stealthing" trend that has douche bags taking pride in removing condoms without their partner knowing—potentially exposing them to all kinds of diseases and for some, running the risk of an unwanted pregnancy.

If a person discovers that their partner has deceptively removed a condom and he or she does not stop when they are asked to, under this North Carolina law, it's not considered a sex crime.

And what if a person starts to feel pain during the act? Or their partner begins unleashing verbal abuse? Or, hell, the person has to pee!!?

But forget the number of times the pair has had sex and the amount of reasons why; the only numbers game that should be adhered to is that "no" should only have to be said once.

Shame on North Carolina courts for not protecting and seeking justice for sexual assault survivors.