DSW Newsletter #16 (July 2020) Archives

DSW Supports Criminal Justice Reform Bills in New York

DSW’s Melissa Broudo and Frances Steele attended a rally in New York City supporting five state-level criminal justice reform bills that will be voted on — and hopefully passed — this legislative session. The rally featured impacted community members who shared personal experiences and state-wide data to explain the critical issues addressed by each bill. Over the past year, DSW has collaborated with local sex workers and LGB and TGNC rights groups to repeal the criminalization of Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution in New York state (S2253 (Hoylman)/A654 (Paulin)). Also known as the Walking While Trans ban, this repeal was one of the five bills highlighted at the rally.

Walking While Trans disproportionately impacts transgender and cisgender women of color, criminalizing them for otherwise legal behavior based on the way they look. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has stopped prosecuting the charge because of such discrimination. Last year, NYPD updated its patrol guide to stop targeting individuals on the basis of “gender, gender identity, clothing, and location.” Despite the fact that charges for Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution were only brought in six New York counties in 2019, arrests increased by 120%. Of those arrested, 91% were people of color and 80% were women; 47% of the arrests occurred in Queens County alone.

Leaders of the New York City Council’s Women’s Caucus and LGBT Caucus submitted a letter, seeking a hearing for a resolution on the repeal of Walking While Trans. “Our laws need to reflect New Yorkers’ right to walk in public without fear of being profiled for their gender expression… As a Council, we cannot idly sit back and allow state law to further penalize and criminalize anyone on the basis of their clothing, gender expression, or gender identity,” the resolution reads.

Melania Brown, the sister of Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman who died of an epileptic seizure while in solitary confinement on Rikers Island last year, was one of the featured speakers. Layleen was arrested in April 2019 on assault charges and then held on a $500 bail for drug and prostitution charges from 2017. Unable to afford the bail, Polanco passed away two months later.

Together, the bills represent a road map to justice and decarceration in New York state. Each addresses a different facet of racial violence that routinely occurs within the U.S. prison system. The Fair and Timely Parole Act ensures that parole decisions are not racially biased and are based on who individuals are today, rather than who they were when they committed their offense. The Elder Parole Act seeks to end death-by-incarceration sentences in New York state by giving those who have served decades in prison the chance to be released. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act would end solitary in New York and replace it with more effective and humane alternatives. Lastly, the Protect Our Courts Act makes it illegal for ICE agents or law enforcement officers to arrest an individual for a civil violation who is going to, leaving, or attending court.

To help pass the repeal of Walking While Trans, text WALK to 50409. If you are a New York State resident you can also reach out to your State Senator or Assemblymember and urge them to vote on and pass this critical package of bills.

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A New Bill Threatening Free Speech and Online Security Passes the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

An amended version of the EARN IT Act, a dangerous federal bill that could effectively erase private communication online, unanimously passed the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The passage of the bill sets the stage for a high-stakes floor vote, one that could fundamentally endanger free speech and security on the internet.

Proposed by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R–SC), the law would establish an unelected, 19-member commission to develop guidelines on prohibited content for online platforms to follow. If companies fail to meet set standards, legal immunity for content posted by third parties, protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, could be revoked. The bill’s provisions also threaten encryption, which protects online users from exploitation and surveillance by the government, companies, and other users. EARN IT subjects companies using end-to-end encryption to lawsuits, construing encryption as “recklessly” enabling the spread of child trafficking online.

The result would increase pressure on websites to censor sexual content, causing sex workers to lose access to online safety provisions and networks, income, and clientele; and, in the case of COVID-19, leading to a heightened public health risk. Under SESTA/FOSTA, sex workers have been barred from online platforms where they previously screened clients, shared critical safety and health information, and ensured secure payment. Law enforcement has also reported that, since the passage of SESTA/FOSTA, they have lost evidence and leads for many of the sex trafficking cases they were investigating using online tips. The EARN IT Act will only augment these harms.

Multiple human rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, have challenged the efficacy of the bill’s provisions. The ACLU issued a letter charging that the law would instead “undermine the privacy of every single American, stifle our ability to communicate freely online, and may jeopardize the very prosecutions it seeks to enable.”

“The EARN IT Act falsely suggests that we must choose between protecting children and protecting other fundamental rights, including privacy and free expression,” says Hye Jung Han, child rights and technology researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But the [bill] fails to protect children from online exploitation while undermining their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy — during today’s crisis and beyond.”

In a Cato Daily Podcast episode released in March of this year, Eric Goldman, a leading expert on internet law and intellectual property, described how the EARN IT Act removes web platforms’ immunity from being sued for content posted by third parties. Ostensibly an attempt to crack down on material that victimizes young people, Goldman doubts the legislation would achieve its targeted goal. Instead, the bill endangers free speech and the security of online users, particularly those posting sexual content.

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Fighting and Winning: Ceyenne Doroshow and the state of TGNCNB rights

DSW consultant, cornerstone figure of the transgender, nonconforming, nonbinary rights movement, and founder of Gays and Lesbians Living In a Transgender Society (G.L.I.T.S.), Ceyenne Doroshow set out to raise a million dollars to support trans women of color last month. The fundraiser reached its goal in one short week and the momentum has not stopped. The drive will support the establishment of housing, social services, and health care clinics for transgender people of color in New York City.

Doroshow and G.L.I.T.S. have been powerhouses of TGNC and sex worker rights organizing in New York for decades. In the wake of the disproportionate devastation borne by the Black and Black trans communities during the coronavirus pandemic, Doroshow’s work has taken center stage. Over the past few months, G.L.I.T.S. has been tirelessly supporting those released from Rikers Island. Many trans women are sent to Rikers for minor sex-crime activity, including Layleen Polanco who recently passed away in solitary confinement due to complications from an epileptic seizure. Doroshow and her team at G.L.I.T.S. provide career training, housing referrals, and certifications as well as a “TransDignity Post-Release Kit” for those just released from prison, including hygienic essentials like wipes and deodorant.

G.L.I.T.S. recently helped organize the 2nd Annual Queer Liberation March this year, initially canceled due to COVID-19 concerns. Along with VOCAL-NY, the Reclaim Pride Coalition, Black Trans Media, and others, the organizational coalition intentionally rebranded the march to highlight racial justice activism. Fifty-thousand masked protesters marched through Manhattan for LGBTQ+ liberation and Black lives. Leading the procession uptown, seated in a rickshaw of honor, was Ceyenne Doroshow.

In an interview with Vogue, Doroshow describes how, in the first two weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City, she lost 20 friends. Devastated but determined to help, G.L.I.T.S. collaborated with Rikers Island to determine a COVID-safe plan to get Black trans men and women out of jail and into safe isolation. The program presented enormous challenges, but it ultimately succeeded. Today, “we are thriving,” Doroshow says. “Those we’ve been able to help, they’re thriving. Some have graduated [from] college through COVID-19 and graduated at the top of their class. That’s what makes me proud, and that’s what I want, to continue developing these tools so that we can catch people before they fall.”

Doroshow recently participated in a virtual press conference on the State of TGNC/NB Rights. It is clear that organizations like G.L.I.T.S. are driving a movement that should not be underestimated. Last month, DSW reported on a 15,000+ person rally for Black Trans Lives in Brooklyn. The next day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Civil Rights law extends to LGB and TGNC workers, who had previously been left unprotected from workplace discrimination. More and more, people are talking about the reality that transgender people of color face in this country. As Doroshow puts it, “there is a general problem when it comes to equity and trans people, people of color, Black trans women. There’s a problem when you’re trying to sustain and trying to live. For example, your landlord has the right to discriminate against you, and you can’t prove discrimination. So once again, you’re abandoned by a system and by a community.”

Symbolized by her position in the Queer Liberation March, Doroshow is quickly becoming a nationally renowned figure. G.L.I.T.S. is the definition of mutual aid and community solidarity in the face of hardship. The organization has been highlighting individual-based fundraisers for trans folks who have been killed due to police violence through their Instagram page. Many of the G.L.I.T.S. volunteers and supporters have been donating to an emergency relief fund to help bail Black trans sex workers out of jail. And it’s working, bringing people together when it is most critical. “Allies don’t come in color—they’re just allies. Having a bunch of young people care and just jump in and start organizing around us and helping us do the work—you can’t ask for anything better than that.”

To support Doroshow’s work and this growing movement, visit G.L.I.T.S.’s donation page here.

DSW Newsletter Archive

A Victory Against Loitering Statutes in Seattle

The Seattle City Council unanimously voted to strike prostitution and drug traffic loitering laws from the city code. The decision is a decisive win for racial justice, human rights, and equity, one that DSW and other sex worker rights advocates are working hard to replicate in New York state.

Repeals were based on the findings of the Seattle Reentry Workgroup, a study conducted by criminal justice experts and impacted individuals in 2018 to examine how the city could better support people exiting the criminal justice system and cut down on inequities. The decision was endorsed by City Attorney Pete Holmes, whose office stopped prosecuting loitering crimes in 2018. Holmes said he has “long questioned the use of loitering crimes as a law enforcement tool, and [is] grateful that the 2018 Reentry Workgroup helped shine a light on their racist origins.”

Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution is a violation or misdemeanor in multiple states and municipalities across the U.S. Statutes often define the charge generally, as wandering, remaining, or spending time in a public space* with the intention of committing a prostitution offense or promoting prostitution. Broad definitions allow police officers to target transgender and cisgender women of color for being in certain spaces based on how they dress or what they look like. Councilmember Andrew Lewis, who introduced and sponsored the repeal of both laws, views the ordinance as “an excuse to racially profile community members who had done nothing wrong.” Fellow Seattle Councilmember Alex Pederson celebrated the repeals as part of the city's effort to react and respond to the national conversation about police and structural racism in America.

SWOP Seattle, a chapter of the national Sex Workers’ Outreach Project, tweeted following the passage of the law: “Today Seattle City Council repealed drug and prostitution loitering laws that endangered SW safety, unjustly targeted non-violent peoples, and disproportionately impacted our most vulnerable communities. Today we celebrate.”

A bill to repeal Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution in New York state, also known as Walking While Trans, is up for a vote this legislative session. S2253 (Hoylman)/A654 (Paulin) will hopefully bring the same safety and equity to New Yorkers. Over one hundred state organizations, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, Brooklyn Defenders, and Safe Horizon, have endorsed the repeal. District attorneys across the country, including in Manhattan and San Francisco, have stopped prosecuting the charge. Data supports that, where and when it is implemented, Walking While Trans is targeted and discriminatory. In order to truly support safety and justice for women of color in New York, particularly transgender women, New York must repeal the ban on Walking While Trans.

If you are a New York resident, please consider reaching out to your State Senator or Assemblymember to express your support for S2254/A654.

*For example, under New Jersey law, this behavior is prohibited in any “public place,” defined as any place to which the public has access, including but not limited to any public street, sidewalk, bridge, alley, plaza, park, boardwalk, driveway, parking lot or transportation facility, public library, or the doorways and entranceways to any building which fronts on any of the aforesaid places, or a motor vehicle in or on any such place.

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Hero of the Month: Portland-based stripper and sex worker rights activist Cat Hollis is demanding fair treatment for Black sex workers

Across the country, strippers are mobilizing for increased labor rights and racial justice in the adult entertainment industry. At the center of the movement is Cat Hollis, a Portland-based dancer and founder of the Haymarket Pole Collective. The organization began its work in November of 2019 to support “proactive policy and equitable treatment [of] Black and Indigenous workers by facilitating restorative justice in the adult entertainment industry.” Since the resurgence of Black Lives Matter activism in the spring of 2020, Hollis and her fellow Portland-based activists have sparked national momentum, building on local strippers’ rights protests that have been popping up across the country.

Hollis moved to Portland from the Midwest in 2015 and built her extensive support network from scratch. She is a Renaissance woman; with a varied career history as a sailboat deckhand, middle school teacher, gallery curator, and published playwright, Hollis found anonymity, acceptance, and empowerment in the adult entertainment world. Contracting with four different Portland strip clubs, she also did a stint in club management and was brought face to face with the predatory economic practices that can be used by clubs when booking dancers. With the support of fellow Portland strippers and activists, Hollis formed the Haymarket Pole Collective to bring advocacy and accessibility to adult entertainment.

Hollis describes the deep inequities embedded in a quintessential Portland industry. The Haymarket Pole Collective draws in artists, sex educators, night-life entertainers, designers, and bartenders. Their work is inspired by their experiences in adult entertainment but applies broadly to common struggles that independent contractors face: instability, discrimination, and resource scarcity. Hollis talks about predatory management, racism, and sexism in clubs, among other issues that people in many informal industries can relate to.

Perhaps this is why the movement has been so successful. Or perhaps it is because of the dynamic irreverence of its founder. Hollis frequently shares videos on her Instagram speaking out about sex-phobia and her experiences as a Black stripper and a Black woman. Her humor and honesty are as refreshing as they are compelling. Quoted in an OPB article about the movement, Hollis says the strike really started by accident when she made “a group chat of Black strippers, sending just memes and funny things to make each other smile.” Now, the Haymarket Pole Collective has members in 18 states, including Illinois and Pennsylvania, and the Portland Stripper Strike is one of the largest in the nation.

Already, the movement has been successful in getting all of Portland’s 31 strip clubs to adopt their demands for ending racial discrimination in the industry. The Haymarket Pole Collective released updated requests last month. Hollis says that the pandemic, and the closure of many clubs, probably provided the momentum needed to effect change. “Because technically none of us have jobs right now,” she said, “it makes it a lot easier.” She feels hopeful “that change is possible.” In a recent Instagram post, the organization thanked “all the dancers who risked it for the biscuit."

To support the movement for labor rights and respect for sex workers across the country, please consider making a donation.

July 14, 2020

Melissa Broudo (left) and Frances Steele (right) listen to speakers at a rally in New York City. (Photo: DSW, 2020)

Melania Brown, sister of Layleen Polanco, calls for an end to police brutality and justice for transgender women. (Photo: DSW, 2020)

The rally supported five criminal justice bills to provide a #RoadMaptoJustice in New York state. DSW Supports a Rally for Criminal Justice Reform in New York State. (Photo: Brooklyn Defender Services/Instagram, 2020)

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July 2, 2020

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed the legislation in March of this year. (Photo: Tasos Katopodis/The Verge, 2020)

The same human rights experts and community activists who protested the passage of SESTA/FOSTA in 2018, including the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are speaking out against the EARN IT Act. (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Barcroft Media, 2020)

Eric Goldman is a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law where he co-directs the High Tech Law Institute and co-supervises the law school's Privacy Law Certificate. (Photo: Eric Goldman, 2020)

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June 29, 2020

Ceyenne Doroshow is pictured marching for Black Trans Lives, following her speech at the Brooklyn Liberation Rally. (Photo: Richi Shazam/Vogue, 2020)

Seated in a rickshaw, Doroshow led the 2nd Annual Queer Liberation March, rebranded to include the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality and racial injustice. (Photo: Leandro Justin/Out Magazine, 2020)

Marchers celebrated liberation and human rights for all marginalized communities, including sex workers. (Photo: Meryl Meisler/Mic, 2020)

Doroshow hosted a virtual pride event in partnership with GLAAD and the National LGBTQ Taskforce. (Photo: G.L.I.T.S., 2020)

Doroshow addressed a cheering crowd of over 15,000 people at the Brooklyn Liberation Action For Black Trans Lives. (Photo: G.L.I.T.S., 2020)

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June 22, 2020

SWOP Seattle tweeted about the historic victory for human rights in their city. (Photo: Twitter, 2020)

Councilmember Andrew Lewis sponsored the legislation. (Photo: Twitter, 2020)

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June 18, 2020

Cat Hollis is a Portland-based dancer and organizer for the Portland Stripper Strike. (Photo: Tess Riski/Willamette Week, 2020)

The Lucky Devil posted in support of the movement and say they are making an effort to hold themselves accountable on Instagram this month. Movement leaders say they are wary of performative activism. (Photo: The Lucky Devil/Instagram, 2020)

Hollis and other dancers at a rally for #pdxstripperstrike in Portland. (Photo: Russell Dent/Rolling Stone, 2020)

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