Red
Signs You Should Stop
- You’re too intoxicated to gauge or give consent.
- Your partner is asleep or passed out.
- You hope your partner will say nothing and go with the flow.
- You intend to have sex by any means necessary.
Yellow
Signs You Should Pause and Talk
- You’re not sure what the other person wants.
- You feel like you are getting mixed signals.
- You have not talked about what you want to do.
- You assume that you will do the same thing as before.
Green
Keep Communicating
- Partners come to a mutual decision about how far to go.
- Partners clearly express their comfort with the situation.
- Partners feel comfortable and safe stopping at any time.
- Partners are excited.
Affirmative Consent Definition
- Affirmative consent is a knowing, voluntary, and mutual decision among all participants to engage in sexual activity.
- Consent may be given by words or actions, as long as those words or actions create clear permission regarding willingness to engage in the sexual activity.
- Consent is active, not passive.
- Silence or lack of resistance, in and of itself, does not demonstrate consent.
- Consent is required and is the responsibility of the person(s) initiating each specific sexual act regardless of whether the person initiating the act is under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.
- Consent to any sexual act or prior consensual sexual activity between the parties or with any party does not constitute consent to any other sexual act.
- Consent may be initially given but withdrawn at any time.
- When consent is withdrawn or cannot be given, sexual activity must stop.
- Consent cannot be given when a person is incapacitated.
- Incapacitation occurs when an individual lacks the ability to knowingly choose to participate in sexual activity. Incapacitation may be caused by the lack of consciousness or being asleep, being involuntarily restrained, or if an individual otherwise cannot consent.
- Depending on the degree of intoxication, someone who is under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or other intoxicants may be incapacitated and therefore unable to consent.
- It is not an excuse that the student responding party of sexual misconduct was intoxicated and/or under the influence of other drugs, and therefore, did not realize the incapacity of the other.
- Consent cannot be given if any of the parties are under the age of 17, or if an individual otherwise cannot consent.
- Consent cannot be given when it is the result of any coercion, intimidation, force, or threat of harm.
- The definition of consent does not vary based upon a participant’s sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.