NYC Bar supports repeal of ‘walking while trans’ ban

Transgender individuals and their advocates marched during a demonstration in Jackson Heights in 2018. Eagle file photo by Andy Katz.

By Victoria Merlino

The New York City Bar Association joined advocates for the rights of transgender New Yorkers Wednesday to call for the repeal of a piece of state penal code related to prostitution that critics have dubbed the “walking while trans ban.”

The measure, Section 240.37 of the state penal code, allows police to arrest people for allegedly loitering “for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.” In practice, the NYCBA said, the broad law has been used to profile people based on their clothing or gender identity,

“The statute provides no guidance on what constitutes acceptable clothing, which has contributed to overbroad enforcement of § 240.37 against transgender women of color who congregate on the street, run errands, or simply leave their homes,” NYCBA wrote in a recommendation report on the law. “Women of color have been subject to arrest for standing on the street with a group of friends or calling out to passing-by neighbors in their own communities.”

NYCBA joins a large coalition of activist organizations and lawmakers, as well as district attorneys from Brooklyn and Manhattan, in supporting a repeal of the law. 

Though prostitution-related arrests declined overall in 2018, there was an increase in loitering arrests, with more than half occurring in Queens. 

A larger movement to decriminalize sex work in New York has prompted lawmakers to introduce a package of bills last year that would decriminalize it among consenting adults.