DSW Newsletter #37 (June 2022) Archives

DSW Staff Commemorates Pride

Burlington’s Vote To Strike Language on Sex Work From City Charter Becomes Law

June 8, 2022 Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed H.746, An act relating to an amendment to the charter of the City of Burlington, striking harmful language from the city’s charter. In March, 69% of Burlington residents voted...

DSW Research and Project Manager Testifies at Legislative Study Commission

June 13, 2022 DSW Research and Project Manager J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly presented on the intersection of LGBTQIA individuals and sex workers’ rights at the June 13 meeting of a legislative study commission in Rhode Island. Oshiro-Brantly co-presented with...

A Long Overdue Bill Repealing the “Walking While Trans Ban” Heads to Gov. Newsom’s Desk

June 20, 2022 Nine months after passing the legislature, a bill that would repeal a provision of California law that prohibits “loitering in public for the purpose of engaging in prostitution” is in Governor Newsom’s hands. He...

DSW Staff Commemorates Pride

June 26, 2022 DSW staff and allies took to the streets to show their support for LGBTQIA rights. They joined NYC’s Queer Liberation March for Trans and BIPOC Freedom, Reproductive Justice, and bodily autonomy. DSW Newsletter #37...

DSW Newsletter Archive

A Long Overdue Bill Repealing the “Walking While Trans Ban” Heads to Gov. Newsom’s Desk

Nine months after passing the legislature, a bill that would repeal a provision of California law that prohibits “loitering in public for the purpose of engaging in prostitution” is in Governor Newsom’s hands. He can veto or sign the bill into law — or let it become law without his signature. DSW was proud to collaborate with a broad coalition of groups and individuals to repeal New York State’s “Walking While Trans Ban” in February 2021. We applaud California advocates for their hard-fought victory in the state legislature and urge Gov. Newsom to sign the bill into law to bring a measure of relief to individuals who have been marginalized and persecuted for far too long.

The repeal of “loitering laws” now known as “Walking While Trans Bans” is long overdue in California and across the nation. “Loitering for the Purpose of Prostitution” (LPP) is a tool for discrimination rather than community safety. Loitering laws give police permission to profile, harass, and arrest individuals for non-criminal activities. As with stop-and-frisk and other loitering charges, individuals are not arrested for what they are doing, but for who they are. LPP 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.

LPP is a discriminatory statute used by law enforcement to profile and harass individuals based on their race, gender, and/or stereotypes of what a prostitute looks like. Laws that prosecute intent — rather than action — allow law enforcement to enforce violations at their discretion, threatening equal protection under the law. As “stop-and-frisk” policies have been used to profile Black and Latinx individuals, LPP gives law enforcement an avenue to exercise disproportionately discriminatory profiling of transgender and cisgender women of color.

The history of the criminalization of LPP is one of discrimination and discretion used to target and control low-income women. The Chamberlain-Kahn Act of 1918, also known as the American Plan, implemented a public health program with the stated goal of combatting the spread of sexually transmitted infections amongst soldiers in the United States during World War I. In this “Forgotten War on Women,” the Chamberlain-Kahn Act allowed for the arrest and imprisonment of any woman who could be “reasonably suspected” of having a sexually transmitted infection (STI). A disproportionate number of those arrested were working-class women and women of color who were viewed as “a threat to soldiers’ moral hygiene.”

Under the American Plan, transgender and cisgender women were arrested and given invasive exams on the basis of poverty, racial profiling, rumors of prostitution, their dress being perceived as “morally questionable,” or simply walking alone in the wrong place at the wrong time. These exams were used as a pretense to convict women of prostitution and send them away for “rehabilitation.” The Chamberlain-Kahn Act continued to be enforced through the 1970s.

LPP laws and loitering statutes in general have been used to target people of color, transgender individuals, and those with previous convictions for occupying public spaces. Defendants across the country are overwhelmingly women, both transgender and cisgender. The specific focus on transgender women, and the impact of these laws, has been well documented. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, based in New York City, found that 80% of its clients who identified as transgender women of color had experienced police harassment or false arrest based on suspicion of prostitution, often resulting in a conviction.

Like other laws that contribute to profiling for low-level offenses, LPP contributes to the revolving door of involvement in the criminal justice system. Individuals arrested once for a specific crime are then targeted over and over again as a result of their record.

Contact with the criminal legal system traps individuals in a cycle of fines, jail, and court dates that can be difficult to escape. In cases where there is no victim, individuals should not be saddled with the burden of a record that prevents them from accessing housing, employment, and other opportunities.

Watch and share our short video on LPP here.

Burlington’s Vote To Strike Language on Sex Work From City Charter Becomes Law

DSW Research and Project Manager Testifies at Legislative Study Commission

A Long Overdue Bill Repealing the “Walking While Trans Ban” Heads to Gov. Newsom’s Desk

DSW Staff Commemorates Pride

DSW Newsletter Archive

DSW Research and Project Manager Testifies at Legislative Study Commission

DSW Research and Project Manager J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly presented on the intersection of LGBTQIA individuals and sex workers’ rights at the June 13 meeting of a legislative study commission in Rhode Island. Oshiro-Brantly co-presented with Henri June Bynx, who is also a sex worker and activist.

Their presentation highlighted the parallels in the criminalization and stigmatization of sex work, gender identity, and sexual orientation. It delved into the inextricable links between the deleterious effects of marginalization both for sex workers and LGBTQIA individuals and their converging fights for equal freedoms and treatment under law. Oshiro-Brantly and Bynx grounded their presentation in data from Rhode Island and beyond demonstrating that LGBTQIA individuals and particularly those who engage in sex work are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice sytem. They face harassment, profiling, and discrimination — and, once saddled with a criminal record because of this, they face extraordinary barriers to housing, employment, and other critical resources necessary to sustain life.

Their presentation concluded with the below recommendations for Rhode Island, though these recommendations are widely applicable to all states and municipalities:

1. Pass a law that grants immunity from prosecution to people engaged in commercial sexual activity if they report to law enforcement that they are victims of or witnesses to a crime. (Read more about Immunity/Good Samaritan laws as they relate to sex work here.)

2. Fully decriminalize consensual adult sex work.

3. Repeal “Loitering for Prostitution” and “Loitering for Indecent Purposes” which have become known as “Walking While Trans Bans” as law enforcement uses these statutes to profile, harass, and arrest transgender women.

4. Repeal Section a. In the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Law (§ 11-34.1-12), which stipulates that: (a) Any person convicted of a violation of any provisions of chapter 34 shall be required to be tested for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). No consent for the testing shall be required.

5. Pass House Bill 5464 — patients will not be denied appropriate healthcare on the basis of their sex work history.

6. Pass Senate Bill 249/ House Bill 6049 — which would create a new criminal offense of “custodial sexual assault,” which occurs when a peace officer perpetrates a sexual assault while a victim is in their custody.

The RI study commission was formed last year following the unanimous passage of House Resolution 5250, which proposed a special legislative commission to study ensuring racial equity and optimizing health and safety laws affecting marginalized individuals. The bill, as passed, delineated who should sit on the commission, which includes 13 members, including individuals with lived experience. Other members of the commission include two legislators, a member of COYOTE RI, a representative from Amnesty International, two representatives of organizations serving populations disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of commercial sex, the director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, an attorney from the Rhode Island Public Defender’s Office, the Rhode Island attorney general, or designee, a representative from the Brown University Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and the president of the Rhode Island Police Chief’s Association, or their designee.

DSW advocates for the creation of study commissions focused on evaluating prostitution laws, addressing trafficking concerns, and identifying better ways to create support systems for both sex workers and trafficked people. A study commission should examine and provide recommendations on the health and safety impacts of revising laws related to commercial sexual activity; identify the methods of human trafficking and exploitation to develop strategies to reduce these activities; and ensure accountability in the treatment of marginalized and targeted communities by police. Prostitution laws are often applied in a way that creates an environment in which exploitation thrives. Those laws often disproportionately harm already marginalized communities. They also fail to meaningfully address the issue of human trafficking. There is a need to comprehensively research and then reform legal and support systems around sex work and trafficking in order to keep people safe and ensure access to resources.

Read our fact sheet on study commissions to review existing laws and address trafficking and exploitation here.

Burlington’s Vote To Strike Language on Sex Work From City Charter Becomes Law

DSW Research and Project Manager Testifies at Legislative Study Commission

A Long Overdue Bill Repealing the “Walking While Trans Ban” Heads to Gov. Newsom’s Desk

DSW Staff Commemorates Pride

DSW Newsletter Archive

Burlington’s Vote To Strike Language on Sex Work From City Charter Becomes Law

Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed H.746, An act relating to an amendment to the charter of the City of Burlington, striking harmful language from the city’s charter. In March, 69% of Burlington residents voted to support equity, safety, and dignity by opting to remove the discriminatory language prohibiting sex work.

The charter change was then proposed for approval by both chambers of the state legislature. It was passed by a vote of 105 to 33 in the House and on a unanimous voice vote in the Senate. The Governor’s signature on the bill affirms that this type of language perpetuates stigma that can be harmful and does not belong in laws.

Vermonters who engage in consensual adult sex work and individuals who have experienced trafficking urged voters and legislators to make this critical amendment to the city charter. “We have been criminalized and marginalized for too long,” said Henri June Bynx, co-founder of The Ishtar Collective, Vermont’s only organization run by and for sex workers and survivors of exploitation or trafficking. “We are asking our neighbors to recognize us as deserving of dignity and bodily autonomy. This charter change is a vital step towards improving the health and safety of individuals who engage in sex work consensually and those who are trafficked into it,” Bynx continued.

The charter amendment will not decriminalize prostitution in Burlington; state law will continue to criminalize sex work. Significantly, the overwhelming support in favor of the amendment demonstrates that voters and legislators can distinguish between consensual adult sex work and the horrific crime of human trafficking. Understanding this distinction is crucial for communities to combat trafficking into sex work effectively.

The only opposition to the charter change came from individuals and groups who conflate human trafficking and consensual adult sex work. When and where this conflation occurs, as it does in most of the laws governing sex work in the U.S. and around the world, trafficked individuals face enormous barriers to freedom and services because of laws and language that discriminate against and punish sex workers. Trafficking survivors are on average arrested seven times before they are able to escape exploitation because current prostitution and anti-trafficking laws make it impossible for victims and witnesses to report exploitation without risking prosecution themselves. When innocent people are arrested and prosecuted, victims face barriers to services, and exploitation proliferates in the underground market. Removing the archaic language from the City Charter is an important step towards addressing trafficking into sex work in a manner that actually helps victims.

June 26, 2022

DSW Newsletter #37 (June 2022)

June 20, 2022

DSW Newsletter #37 (June 2022)

June 13, 2022

J. Leigh Oshiro-Brantly, Henri June Bynx, and Alison Kolins stand in front of the Rhode Island State House.

DSW Newsletter #37 (June 2022)

June 8, 2022

DSW Newsletter #37 (June 2022)