Repeal of loitering law targeting sex workers passes Calif. Senate Committee
Brody Levesquehomepage news
SACRAMENTO – A law which repeals provisions of California law that criminalizes loitering for the intent to engage in sex work passed through the Senate Public Safety Committee by a vote of 4-1.
Senate Bill 357, authored by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), repeals provisions of state statues that criminalize loitering for the intent to engage in sex work. These provisions oft times result in the disproportionate criminalization of trans, Black and Brown women, and perpetuates violence toward sex workers.
Arrests under existing law are most often predicated on an officer’s subjective perception of whether a person is “acting like” they intend to engage in sex work proponents of decimalizing sex work argue.
The bill does not decriminalize soliciting or engaging in sex work. Rather, it simply eliminates an anti-loitering offense that leads to harmful treatment of people for simply “appearing” to be a sex worker.
Under current law, it is a crime to loiter in a public place with the “intent” to commit a sex work-related offense. But this law can be broadly interpreted, and thus allows for discriminatory application against the LGBTQ community and people of color.
Law enforcement agencies can use a non-exhaustive list of circumstances to subjectively determine if someone “intends” to engage in sex work, including factors such as speaking with other pedestrians, being in an area where sex work has occurred before, wearing revealing clothing, or moving in a certain way.
“For far too long, California law has been used to arbitrarily target, harass and arrest transgender and gender-nonconforming people simply for existing in public spaces,” said Tami A. Martin, Equality California Legislative Director, whose organization is a cosponsor.
“Let’s be clear: this law doesn’t make our communities safer — it contributes to distrust between LGBTQ+ people of color and law enforcement. By listening to and following the lead of transgender people of color — who are most often targets of archaic and discriminatory loitering laws — California has the opportunity to boldly stand on the side of justice and improve public safety. All LGBTQ+ people deserve to exist without fear of harassment and violence, which is why we are proud to cosponsor SB 357,” Martin said.
Because current law regarding loitering is highly subjective and vague, law enforcement officers disproportionately profile and target Black and Brown transgender women by stopping and arresting people for discriminatory and inappropriate reasons.
This is how Black and Brown transgender women get arrested and cited for simply walking on the street. It also gives law enforcement the ability to more easily target and arrest sex workers.
“Sex workers are workers like anyone else, and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” said Wiener. “Our criminal justice system criminalizes people – particularly Black, Brown and LGTBQ people – for simply existing and going about their lives. Laws like this one do nothing to make people safer, or stop sex trafficking. Instead, they criminalize members of our community who are simply going about their lives. We need to support sex workers instead of criminalizing them.”
People within the LGBTQ, Black, and Brown communities report high rates of police misconduct throughout the United States and are disproportionately affected by police violence.
Transgender people who have done street-based sex work are more than twice as likely to report physical assault by police officers and four times as likely to report sexual assault by police. A Black person is 3.5 times more likely to be shot by police than a white person. These statistics are a daily reality that transgender, Black and Brown people face and lead to mistrust of law enforcement.
SB 357 will repeal a discriminatory law that makes it a crime to loiter with the intent to engage in sex work, given that it fails to prevent street-based sex work and disproportionally results in the criminalization of transgender people and communities of color.
Fatima Shabazz of Fatima Speaks, and co-leader of the Policy Committee of the DecrimSexWorkCA Coalition added, “This is the first step in repealing a Jim Crow law that criminalizes Black and trans people in public spaces.”