LETTERS – April 2026
Cosmopolitans and Consent
Opinion: New York must close a dangerous legal loophole in its sex crimes law
I grew up in a rule-heavy home with parents who never touched alcohol. My mom did not like it in the house, and my dad, because is lovingly obsessed with mom, went along with it. But like any teenager, I wondered what it was like to be drunk.
When I got to college and had my first sip, I was disgusted. It was nasty and I decided I never wanted to drink it again. That February my roommate, Katie, learned I had lived 18 years of my life without ever being drunk. She insisted that I needed to try it at least once.
Katie told me of a fraternity party happening that night and declared we had to go. Noticing the anxiety on my face, she made it known that she would be by my side the whole night. With that reassurance, I was given shot after shot of liquor.
As it was my first time truly drinking, I was unaware of my tolerance levels.
“Are you drunk yet?” she kept asking and I continued to tell her no. I did not feel anything. So, the shots kept coming. Eventually I shrugged my shoulders. Maybe I was drunk and I didn’t know, but it was time to go to the party.
The moment we entered the door, Katie found someone to talk to and disappeared. Within minutes, I went from feeling nothing to feeling everything.
The room was spinning and the night was happening in chunks. My next few memories happened in between the blackouts: a man pushing me up against a wall and kissing me, realizing my arms didn’t do what my brain wanted them to, my attempts to say no, a tongue forced down my throat, a hand down my pants.
At some point, I heard a girl’s voice say, “You guys should get a room.” I used that moment to slip away and find Katie. She, on the other hand, was having a great time and was upset that I would interrupt her ─ but I wanted to leave. Someone else noticed I was crying and offered to take me home. The night ended for me. The trauma never did.
I went to college in Virginia where that is sexual assault. In New York, that is consensual. And that legal distinction decides who gets protected and who gets blamed.
Under Article 130 of the New York State Penal Code, a person is considered “mentally incapacitated” only when they are “rendered temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling his conduct owing to the influence of a narcotic or intoxicating substance administered to him without his consent, or to any other act committed upon him without his consent.”
Under this definition, an instance where one is raped or assaulted after engaging in voluntary intoxication, is not a crime. In fact, in New York, it’s not even rape. Legally, it can be treated as consensual sex.
This is entirely out of step with reality. Research consistently shows that a significant number of sexual assaults occur after victims consume excessive amounts of intoxicants, that leave them impaired, disoriented, and unable to refuse nonconsensual sexual acts. Yet, this legal loophole allows defendants to treat any act committed to the victim after voluntarily drinking to be treated as consensual; further deepening the divide between law and truth.
The logic behind keeping this loophole open is the fear that individuals will weaponize the law after a regrettable night rather than a nonconsensual interaction. But that fear exists in a culture that has always protected perpetrators, a culture that bends over backwards to blame victims, a culture where 60.4% of women — when raped by the narrowest definition of the law — don’t even call it rape because it looked “different” than they thought it would.
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But the law is meant to protect the innocent and the court is meant to determine who that is. Survivors deserve the chance to seek accountability in the first place. It is senseless to protect the hypothetical few who might be falsely accused at the expense of the many who absolutely have been harmed. It is the responsibility of the legislature to close this loophole and the responsibility of the judicial system to determine the truth of each case.
Twenty three states have already passed laws removing the exclusion of voluntary intoxication from legislation including Alabama, Minnesota, California, and Virginia. It is past time New York follows.
This legislative session, the New York Assembly and Senate must pass A.101A/S.54 and prohibit the use of a victim’s intoxication as a defense in sex crimes where the victim is so impaired that they cannot control their conduct or clearly express lack of consent. Aligning our legal language with the truth we all know: voluntary intoxication does not constitute consent. Rape is rape.
—Ashley Staggers
Miss Manhattan 2026, Miss America Organization
- Survivor of Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Assault
- Director of the Fostering Youth Success Alliance at Children’s Aid
- Sexual & Gender Based Violence Advocate
- Serves on the Young Professionals Board with Day One New York
- Serves as the Co-Facilitator of the Youth Advisory Council with Culture Reframed
