New York news

January 3, 2022 Newly elected Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, the first African American to be elected DA in New York City, knows that limiting incarceration to a last resort, one reserved for violent crime, will make our communities safer. Bragg’s recently released policy statement, which lays out the...

January 1, 2022 Although legislators are increasingly recognizing the harms of criminalizing sex work, as this year’s legislative session opens, lawmakers continue to propose bills that endanger the rights, health, and safety of sex workers across the country. These laws increase criminal penalties, present new criminal categories around commercial sex,...

January 1, 2022 Bills to decriminalize sex work are being considered in New York (S3075/A849), Massachusetts (H1867), Vermont (H630), and Missouri (H2388). Several other pieces of legislation to improve the health, safety, and human rights of sex workers and related communities have been introduced around the country. Massachusetts also saw...

November 16, 2021 In a historic and long-fought victory, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act into law. The START Act (A459/S674), sponsored by Senator Jessica Ramos and Representative Richard Gottfried, will allow New York State courts to vacate a range of...

“FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Sixty survivors of human trafficking sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo pushing him to sign the START Act, which would allow courts to vacate criminal convictions that result from sex or labor trafficking. ‘These convictions also make it much more difficult to rebuild our lives, creating...

May 24, 2021 The New York State Senate passed the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act (S.674/‍A.459), which would provide greater protections for survivors of human trafficking by allowing them to clear convictions related to their exploitation, known as vacatur. Currently, survivors of trafficking can only petition the court to clear...

April 21, 2021 Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance, following in the footsteps of other New York City boroughs, announced that his office would no longer prosecute individuals for prostitution and unlicensed massage. The news was met with mixed emotions from sex workers and their allies because the policy leaves...

DSW’s Melissa Broudo is featured: “This is not just symbolic. It is meaningful for those over 857 people whose lives were directly impacted by criminalization who either had warrants hanging over their heads or pending court cases hanging over their heads. The criminal justice system is so crippling for people...

February 3, 2021 After nearly fifty years of wreaking havoc on marginalized communities, the criminalization of loitering for the purpose of engaging in a prostitution offense was finally repealed in New York State. The statute, passed in 1976, is commonly referred to as the “Walking While Trans Ban” because law...

September 2, 2020 NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has changed his stance on sex work, moving away from full criminalization and toward support of the Entrapment Model, according to a statement he made in response to questions about the arrest and prosecution of Layleen Polanco. De Blasio announced he does not...

July 21, 2020 Through our work with the New York Anti-Trafficking Network (NYATN) and the START Coalition (named for this bill), DSW has been tirelessly advocating for the Survivors of Trafficking Attaining Relief Together (START) Act, a bill allowing survivors of trafficking to clear their criminal records of arrests stemming...

July 22, 2020 In our last newsletter, DSW reported on how the EARN IT Act, a bill that recently advanced out of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, threatens the very heart of online security and privacy. The legislation claims to go after the online sexual abuse of minors. In a...

July 14, 2020 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...

Decriminalize Sex Work www.DecriminalizeSex.Work Contact: Kaytlin Bailey, Communications Director kaytlin@dswork.org (m) 919-649-7725 NEW YORK, NEW YORK May 25, 2020 Queens Prosecutor Is Wrong About Human Trafficking and Arresting Johns On Monday, May 18, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the creation of the Human Trafficking Bureau to “prosecute sex and...

April 3, 2020 Amidst the rising tide of the COVID-19 crisis, a dangerous and controversial budget has passed both chambers of the New York legislature and been signed into law. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins (D-Yonkers) championed the dangerous and controversial bail reform rollbacks...

March 30, 2020 Lorena Borjas, fearless transgender activist, tireless advocate, and hero of our movement, passed away at Coney Island Hospital from COVID-19. She was 59 years old. Lorena was the heart of New York City’s translatina community. She dedicated her life to ensuring those around her had the support...

March 8, 2020 The International Women’s Strike, also known as Paro Internacional de Mujeres, is a global movement of coalitions in more than 50 countries, organizing around International Women’s Day each year. The movement began in 2017 to honor the work of women across the world, organizing against femicide, gender-based...

March 3, 2020 On International Sex Worker Rights Day, the Walking While Trans Coalition gathered at the Million Dollar Staircase in the Albany Statehouse to speak out about trans rights in New York state. DSW’s J. Leigh Brantly joined activists representing the New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG) and the...

March 3, 2020 Sex workers and allied communities celebrated International Sex Worker Rights Day, a holiday that commemorates the tireless efforts of harm-reduction advocates around the world. The holiday began in India in 2001 when over 25,000 sex workers from around the world gathered there for a festival organized by...

Marsha P. Johnson Honored by Governor Cuomo as He Endorses “Walking­ While­ Trans” Repeal February 1, 2020 Marsha P. Johnson is the first to be honored by DSW’s monthly hero campaign. Ms. Johnson, who passed away on July 6, 1992, was a queer liberation activist and one of the most...

January 8, 2020 The New York State Gender Diversity Coalition, led by the New York Transgender Advocacy Group (NYTAG) including 35+ NY nonprofit organizations, met with NY state legislators in Albany concerning the coalition’s 2020 legislative platform. NYTAG is a trans-led organization that advocates tirelessly for more inclusive gender-based policies, benefitting...

October 1, 2019 A good prostitution-related bill that passed the Assembly side of the NY legislature in June is still pending in the state Senate. This legislation — known on the Senate side as S981A — would fully vacate the criminal convictions of human-trafficking victims. In 2010, NY became the...

August 6, 2019 Tiffany Cabán came within 60 votes of winning the Queens DA race, running on a platform of decriminalizing and decarcerating nonviolent offenders such as sex workers. She specifically pledged her support to the sex work community. After a lengthy recount process, she conceded on August 6. Despite...

Just before the June 30, 2019, kickoff of the World Pride March in New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed A2707, a new law that bans the "gay and transgender panic" defense from being used in murder cases prosecuted in New York State. The panic defense has historically been...

Campaigning for district attorney of NYC, Tiffany Cabán initially declared victory on election night, June 25, 2019, but a full recount is currently ongoing due to how close the original count was after absentee ballots were figured in. The process is expected to take a few weeks. If victorious, Canán...

June 10, 2019 On June 10, Assemblywoman Julia Salazar, in tandem with local coalition DecrimNY, announced that she would be introducing a series of bills in the NY legislature that would fully decriminalize sex work in New York State. While it usually takes years to enact legislation into law, the...