I have been told, in all seriousness, by people who argue vociferously not only for the passage of the bill in question but that the bill in question is such an obvious good that those questioning it are deluded or acting on ulterior motives:

• That the bill does not at all specify explicit verbal consent but simply affirmative consent, that this standard does not require you to ask your partner for permission for every stage of sexual activity a la the Antioch Rules, that a touch or look or other form of nonverbal communication is sufficient to meet the standard, and that this reliance on inexplicit nonverbal communication somehow avoids the supposed ambiguity that this policy is designed to remove
• That the bill, or the broader movement for affirmative consent as a universal norm, does require explicit verbal consent, because of course saying “she said yes with her eyes” is exactly the sort of thing that rapists say, and that this “checklist” or “survey” approach is sexy, that this notion of sexy is not at all an imposition of a subjective and normative vision of sexual practice common to the elite educated class that push for this law but a universal truth that has legal and political weight
• That this bill only refers to the world of college, that we’re trying to simply rewrite college consent rules and thereby create two contrasting standards of sexual consent, which is one of the most crucial legal and moral definitions of human society, that this bill is not intended in any way to affect the world of legal jurisprudence, and simply refers to a very specific and limited set of ad hoc, de facto, amateur courts set up by underqualified and overempowered college administrators, and if you suggest it has consequences for the broader legal world of sexual consent for everyone, most certainly including the legal world
• That of course the bill is part of a much larger movement to make affirmative consent the universal norm of sexual behavior, that in fact this bill is a “pilot program” to try it out, and that this is merely the step in a long process to redefine consent
• That no one is talking about getting rid of the presumption of innocence and due process, and how dare you slander anyone by suggesting that they are
• That in fact this bill is a necessary “brute force” method to undermine due process, because the presumption of innocence is too high a bar to be cleared when it comes to prosecuting sexual assault, and the problem is so big that we need to get our hands dirty
• That this bill will result in people changing their typical sexual practices and embracing this new standard of consent, which I will remind you our moral overlords think is very sexy, and so all people will engage in explicit consent for every sexual encounter, because that is what morality requires and the law will soon insist on
• That this bill will of course not have a big impact on your sexual activity and that no one expects everyone to suddenly start changing their sexual behaviors
• That people who don’t obey this new standard will be punished and held accountable
• That the notion that people who don’t obey this new standard will be punished and held accountable is a laughable conspiracy theory
• That this bill changes everything
• That this bill changes nothing.

All of these opinions have been expressed to me by supporters of this bill. Sometimes they have been expressed by the same people. Sometimes they have been expressed in the same messages, at once. You would think that such passionate advocacy, voiced by people who are sure that the wisdom of this bill is so obvious that anyone who questions it must surely be a creep themselves, would result in a more unified message.

In fact the only thing these advocates seem sure of is that the burden of this bill will never fall on them. For they, surely, are not the kind of people who need to fear the police state, or failures of due process, or being one of the eggs that gets cracked in the making of an omelet. On that, their message is unified: they are the good people who will never have to worry.