Shrija Chauhan, BBA LLB [H], Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India
Hadiya Khan, Assistant Professor, Law College Dehradun, Faculty of Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India
ABSTRACT
This article mainly focuses on the gender-neutral rape laws. As with changing times, there is a need for gender-neutral laws with the development of rape laws. In traditional rape laws, the main concern was to protect women in any sexual violence case but with changing times as many cases were coming regarding sexual offenses that were happening to men, transgender and other individuals the need for gender-neutral laws increased as everyone deserve to be treated equally and protected equally by the law. This article also talks about the evolution of rape laws and the need for gender-neutral laws. The main purpose of gender-neutral laws was to promote equality and to change the norms that society has set about sexual offenses. After the gender-neutral laws were made the rape legislation created an environment for survivors of all genders to be treated equally and support services were formed for them so that they can come forward more freely to seek justice. It has also focused on the challenges while implementing the gender-neutral rape laws. One of the major challenges was to change the stereotype of the society as it has been set in people's minds that women will be the only victims of sexual violence and men will always be the perpetrators, so it's very challenging to change the mind of people that anyone can be the victim of sexual violence regardless of their gender and everyone needs equal protection from the legislation. People can become more supportive only by awareness and by educating them about gender-neutral laws and how it will help the survivors seek justice and be more comfortable in approaching help.
Keywords: Rape, Gender neutrality, Equality, Sexual Assault, Discrimination.
