KENTUCKY — April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of women, and almost one in three men, have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes. The agency also reports that one in three women and about one in nine men have experienced sexual harassment in a public place.

Here in our state, Senate Bill 79 was sponsored by Senator Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville), in this year’s General Assembly session. It’s called the Safe at Home Act and it would protect survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and other sexual offenses by hiding their addresses from their abusers.

The new state law expands the Secretary of State’s Address Confidentiality Program by allowing victims of domestic violence to participate in the program without a judicial protective order, and masks their addresses on publicly available government records beyond just the voter rolls. 

Kentucky is also among the states with the highest domestic violence rates.

SB 79 would expand address masking significantly, hiding the information from nearly all government agency public records.  

The legislation also eliminates the requirement of a protective order, which Secretary of State Michael Adams (R) says can sometimes be cumbersome to attain or not fit the criteria of a survivor's case. 

This piece of legislation has the support of the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

SB 79 would bring Kentucky law in line with programs already in place in 38 other states. 

It will also not cost taxpayers anything. 

During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Sen. Raque Adams discusses the legislation that passed unanimously out of both chambers and was delivered to the Governor’s office. 

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.