A Democratic member of New Mexico’s state House of Representatives is under fire for opining that “rape is defined in many ways, and some of it is just drunken college sex.”
The legislator, Kenny Martinez, made the remark last Wednesday during a judiciary committee debate, The Santa Fe New Mexican reports.
At issue during the debate was a bill that would prevent convicted rapists from having parental rights if they father children during the commission of a rape.
When Martinez made his statement, other committee members were silent. (The Republican-sponsored legislation at issue, House Bill 387, later sailed through the committee without challenge.)
However, two Republicans, Rep. Kelly Fajardo and former state Sen. Rod Adair later publicized Martinez’s rape remark in a press release and on a politics blog, respectively.
“It is simply inexcusable that Rep. Kenny Martinez dismissed a serious crime as nothing more than a night of ‘drunken college sex,'” Fajardo, wrote in the press release. “His comments are belittling to anyone who has ever been a victim and survivor of sexual abuse, and I hope that he will apologize.”
Martinez did not apologize. Instead, he demanded that the two Republicans apologize for criticizing him.
“It’s really unfortunate that Rod Adair and Kelly Fajardo are pulling this political stunt on something that’s so important,” Martinez said, according to the New Mexican. “To create a political stunt on something this important, I really think they owe an apology to every victim of rape in the state of New Mexico.”
Martinez explained that he called some rape “just drunken college sex” in an effort to ensure that “the victim has the choice whether or not the perpetrator should have the financial duty to support a child that is the product of a rape.”
The doubling-down lawmaker also insisted that his Republican critics left out the words “without the ability to consent.”
However, notes the Santa Fe newspaper, the words “without the ability to consent” are not audible on a video recording of the committee hearing.
If Martinez did quietly utter those five words, his full statement would have been: “Rape is defined in many ways, and some of it is just drunken college sex without the ability to consent.”
Martinez has garnered the support of a local advocate against domestic violence.
“We have no greater champion,” Sheila Lewis of taxpayer-funded Santa Fe Safe, said, according to the New Mexican. “I have no doubt in my mind that what he said was in support of women.”
Abortion advocate Joan Lamunyon-Sanford also publicly backed the embattled legislator.
Martinez, 56, is a former Speaker of the House in the New Mexico state assembly. His district rural includes the tiny, rural town of Grants, about 80 miles west of Albuquerque.
He was elected to the House of Representatives in the Land of Enchantment in 1998. He has held his office ever since then. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico and a law degree from the University of Notre Dame.
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