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Cuomo signed legislation this week repealing portions of the law - originally signed in 1976 - that led to “arbitrary and discriminatory policing of transgender women.”
According to the governor’s office, the law was originally passed with “the intent to prohibit loitering for the purpose of prostitution," though it "has been used with an extremely broad definition of loitering that led to the arrest of law-abiding transgender and cisgender women of color.”
Cuomo’s office noted that many local district attorneys already have voluntarily stopped enforcing the law, “recognizing its discriminatory impact.”
“COVID exposed low tide in America and the 'walking while trans' policy is one example of the ugly undercurrents of injustices that transgender New Yorkers - especially those of color - face simply for walking down the street," Cuomo stated. "For too long trans people have been unfairly targeted and disproportionately policed for innocent, lawful conduct based solely on their appearance.”
Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said that the ban “enabled the profiling and arrest of transgender New Yorkers for doing nothing more than standing or walking on the street.”
From 2012 to 2015, 85 percent of people arrested under the penal law were Black or Latinx, according to New York arrest statistics cited by officials.
“Officers have expressly warned transgender women that 'girls like them' would be arrested if they were seen outside after midnight,” officials said. “One officer, when asked how he was trained to identify prostitutes, testified that he was trained to look for women with Adams apples, big hands, and big feet.”
“The Legal Aid Society has represented women assumed to be loitering for prostitution because they were wearing a 'short dress,' 'a skirt and high heels,' 'tight black pants,' or 'a black dress.' Women were also targeted for standing outside, speaking to one another, or walking from a subway or grocery store back to their residence," the organization wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
TS Candii, the executive director of Black Trans News added: “For too long this statute has been used as a weapon to allow law enforcement to harass Black and brown transgender women and non-binary folks for simply having the audacity to walk around and exist in public spaces. New York is a safer place because the #WalkingWhileTrans ban was repealed and sealed.”
Both houses of the New York Legislature voted on Tuesday, Feb. 2 to pass the bill, which permitted police to "stop-and-frisk trans women of color and other marginalized groups for simply walking down the street,” officials said.
“Repealing the archaic 'walking while trans' ban is a critical step toward reforming our policing system and reducing the harassment and criminalization transgender people face simply for being themselves,” Cuomo added. “New York has always led the nation on LGBTQ rights, and we will continue that fight until we achieve true equality for all.”
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