On Trans Remembrance Day, State Senators pledge to repeal ‘Walking While Trans’ ban
/
Manhattan State Sen. Brad Hoylman told transgender New Yorkers and their advocates Tuesday that the state legislature would repeal a section of penal code that allows police to arrest a person for allegedly loitering “for the purpose of prostitution.” The measure is referred to as a “walking while trans” ban, Eagle photo by Emma Whitford
By Emma Whitford
A Manhattan state senator told transgender New Yorkers and their allies Tuesday that the state legislature will repeal a prostitution-related loitering misdemeanor that disproportionately impacts trans women of color in 2020.
“I commit to you today… we will repeal the ‘walking while trans’ law this session in Albany,” State Sen. Brad Hoylman shouted into a bullhorn on 7th Avenue in Manhattan, at a rally on the eve of the national Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The legislation, which Hoylman co-sponsors, faltered last session despite wide-ranging support from criminal justice groups, as well as Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez.
“From his mouth to God’s ears. I can’t wait to vote for it,” said State Sen. Jessica Ramos Wednesday.
The measure would eliminate Section 240.37 of the state penal code, which allows police to arrest a person for allegedly loitering “for the purpose of prostitution.” In practice, advocates say, police have wielded the charge against people they believe to be sex workers, based on their dress and even proximity to LGBTQ-friendly bars.
Last year marked the first spike in loitering arrests since 2012, even as overall prostitution-related arrests declined. More than half of the 121 arrests took place in Queens, and were concentrated in Jackson Heights and Corona.
During the rally, Jackson Heights resident Paula Ramirez recounted being arrested and charged for loitering.
“I had just purchased a couple of things at the grocery store. It was summertime and I just walked outside and the way that I was dressed was reason enough for them to stop me and arrest me and take me to the precinct,” Ramirez said in Spanish, through a translator. “I was there for over two hours and they took me with all of my groceries and everything.”
Decrim NY, a coalition of people with experience in the sex trades, lobbied for the repeal of the loitering law during the last legislative session as part of a broader sex work decriminalization package. Anti-human trafficking groups that oppose sex work decriminalization, including Sanctuary for Families, support its repeal as well.
Throughout Tuesday’s rally, members of organizations including Make the Road NY and Decrim NY lay down roses and photographs as they called out the names of at least 25 transgender people who have died across the country in 2019. They gathered at the corner of Seventh Avenue and 29th Street, where a trans woman named Brenda Bostick was bludgeoned to death with a pipe in 2017.
“We are here to honor the lives of the trans siblings we have lost this year, and speak out on the… violence the black and Latinx transgender people continue to experience in the progressive New York State,” said speaker TS Candii, a member of Decrim NY.
“I cannot walk down the street without being harassed, stopped and frisked, and potentially arrested by police because of who I am and what I wear,” she added. “I am angry, because even though I am an activist, and even though I walk the halls of Albany fighting for trans rights, I still come to police violence. I still come home to police harassment.”
Speakers also called for the decriminalization of sex work, which they described as a viable option in a heavily biased job market. “We go to job interviews, but we don’t get hired,” said Tahtianna Fermin, 37, a peer recovery coach and former survival sex worker.
Attendees remembered the lives of many who died in the past year, including 25-year-old Johana Medina Leon, who died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Texas in June; 23-year-old Muhlaysia Booker, who was fatally shot in Dallas in June; and 27-year-old Layleen Polanco who died in solitary confinement on Rikers Island in June, following a prostitution-related arrest.
Hoylman did not specify Tuesday when his loitering bill might pass. “Early in the session, but hopefully the sooner the better,” he said.
He also demurred when asked whether he plans to join state lawmakers, including Ramos, in supporting the full decriminalization of the adult sex trades.
“I support the concept of, you know, liberalizing our laws around that,” he said. “I’m focused on this bill as a necessary first step. Because the wider decrim effort is going to require more education among my colleagues ... The session is going to be a rollicking one, given that it’s an election year, so all of this has to be viewed in the context of that.”
