California State Senator Kevin de Leon, who sponsored the state’s affirmative consent bill

Today, California passed an affirmative consent, or “yes means yes,” law. This is the first law of its kind, and is less ambiguous than the previously-accepted “no means no” stance.

This is also the first time there’s been a sexual consent law for a state. (Each state sets an age of consent law, but does not specify general consent.) It will be interesting to see whether, or how quickly, other states follow suit in proposing or adopting similar laws.