Lydia Cuomo is incredibly brave. A year and a half ago, the 26-year-old was on her way to start her new job as a second-grade teacher in the Bronx, but an off-duty police officer threatened her at gunpoint and raped her in the courtyard of an Inwood apartment building. The officer, Michael Pena, was convicted of sexual assault but not on the rape charges (he later pleaded guilty to rape as part of a plea deal). Cuomo is now going public to convince Albany to put anal and oral penetration into the New York State definition of rape.

In an interview with the Daily News, Cuomo said, "I feel like essentially I had a silver platter of a rape case. I had witnesses, I had DNA, I had my own testimony, I had two cops. I had them saying, ‘We admit he sexually assaulted you,’ and I didn’t get the verdict I needed the first time, and that just highlights to me the problem in the system." She added, "Anal’s not rape? On what planet do you live? It never occurred to us that that’s not rape."

After the trial, Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas tried to get Albany to change the definition last year—"This legislation will ensure that no other victim will face the same indignity that this Bronx schoolteacher suffered"—but nothing happened. Simotas said, "New York lags behind such liberal bastions as South Dakota and Tennessee in how we define rape. New York should be at the forefront to protect crime victims."

Cuomo, who is not related to the governor, told the Daily News how she was surprised that the jury didn't convict Pena of rape, "When we found out the reason why, it just seemed so ludicrous to me. I think, quite frankly, it’s insulting... Ultimately I was being told, ‘Oh, you were anally raped and orally raped, but we don’t believe you were raped; you were sexually assaulted.’" She also explained why she's making her identity known, "I think this is part of my way of moving on. I think I was given this opportunity to take this horrible, painful and negative thing and make it positive."

Pena was sentenced to 75 years for sexual assault plus another 10 years for rape.