Prosecutors have charged a North Carolina State freshman, who is also a member of the college’s men’s tennis team, with raping another tennis player.

According to The Technician, the N.C. State student newspaper, police arrested the player on Oct. 27 and charged him with one count of committing a “crime against nature” on another tennis player.

The victim was having a party in his apartment the night of the incident, and he told police that he went to bed around 3 a.m. on Oct. 27. Upon entering his room, he said he found the suspect sleeping in his closet.

The victim stated that, once he was in his bed, he heard the suspect leave the closet and lay down on the floor next to the bed.

The victim told officers that he awoke at 5 a.m. and found the suspect leaning over him, performing oral sex.

The victim fled the bedroom to inform others in the apartment of the incident. He then went back into his bedroom, found the suspect pretending to be asleep, and began striking him.

He apparently then phoned police and reported the sexual assault.

It’s routine in sex assault cases for police to swab the victim’s genital area to collect trace evidence of the suspect’s DNA. Police attempted to take a saliva swab of the suspect’s mouth for DNA, but he refused. Police obtained it later with a warrant.

The suspect is a freshman and is a former tennis standout from Charlotte Country Day High School. During his junior and senior years he amassed a record of 28-1 and has earned many sportsmanship awards during his tennis career. He once held the No. 1 ranking in North Carolina among 18-year olds.

The crime against nature is a Class I felony under section 14-177 of the North Carolina General Statutes. Most states define this crime as either sodomy or “oral copulation” without consent.

The preliminary trial is slated for Nov. 19. The young tennis player is still listed on the team’s roster.

Cases like these are also called “acquaintance rape” because the victim and suspect know each other.

Proving the suspect used “force” (or that the victim did not “consent”) is a nightmare for a district attorney, who often doesn’t file charges because there are usually no witnesses besides the parties. Circumstantial evidence is usually not enough to prove rape “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

But thus far it does not appear that the suspect is admitting anything occurred. If there’s a DNA match, he’ll have to explain the presence of his DNA on the victim. Perhaps we’ll hear something about “consent,” but, then, that would mean that he’s gay….

The gay porn fantasy world is full of images of gay men doing exactly what allegedly happened here, with the victim of the rape awakening and grateful for the oral service. That’s not the reality. This case is one of the rare ones in which the victim resorted to the criminal justice system rather than taking matters into his own hands, often injuring or even killing the perpetrator.

Our rape laws today require consent and they are so broad that even marital and domestic partners can “rape” one another while the other is asleep..

Former N.Y.C. Mayor Rudy Giuliani has attracted lots of GLBT support in his presidential bid, largely because of his record on gay rights. But his pact last week with Pat Roberston – to appoint “Pat Robertson-approved nominees” to the U.S. Supreme Court–should end all gay support for Rudy. Victories such as Lawrence v. Texas hang by a one-vote margin. A president who defies Robertson on Supreme Court nominees faces the devil’s wrath, as Bush experienced when he tried to nominate Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court without Robertson’s okay. In the next four years, the new president will certainly have appointments to the Supreme Court. Rudy knows that if he doesn’t appoint Robertson’s idealogues, Rudy won’t get re-elected, and he’ll get little support from within his own party, as almost all are beholden to the Evangelical right in one way or another.