SAN FRANCISCO—The Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) applauds California Governor Gavin Newsom for signing Senator Scott Weiner’s Senate Bill (SB) 357, the Safer Streets for All Act, into law. SB 357 repeals Section 653.22 of the California Penal Code that criminalizes loitering for the intent to engage in sex work and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2023.
Said ESPLERP Chair Claire Alwyne, "This 'walking while trans law' was always a horribly discriminatory law that allowed law enforcement enormous leeway in deciding who they would arrest. And people of color and transgender folks always seemed to be targeted regardless of whether they actually worked as a sex worker or not. And then that resulted in a criminal arrest record that would invariably be used to further discriminate against them when applying for work and housing."
According to ESPLERP, Section 653.22 in practice allowed law enforcement to harass people based on how they looked, what they were wearing, or where they were standing. And law enforcement used that power in an entirely discriminatory manner—targeting Black and Brown women and trans women at an alarming rate. For example, a recent report from UCLA Law students found that Black adults accounted for 56.1 percent of the Section 653.22 charges in Los Angeles between 2017-2019, despite only making up 8.9 percent of the city’s population.
Ironically, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon referenced those statistics in a tweet supporting SB 357. But back in 2015, as San Francisco District Attorney, he was one of the District Attorneys named as defendants in ESPLERP’s lawsuit ESPLERP v Gascon [case 16-15927], which challenged California’s anti-prostitution law, Penal Code 647(b), arguing for the decriminalization of sex work. At the time, Gascon was quoted as saying, “There may be some consenting workers, and if there are, how do we differentiate one from the other?"
SB 357 means that law enforcement will no longer be allowed to criminalize LGTBQ+, Black and Brown communities for perfectly civil activities like walking or standing in public—just because a law enforcement officer somehow deduces that the person intends to engage in sex work. Additionally, SB 357 will enable persons who have previously been convicted of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution to clear their records.
ESPLERP is a diverse community-based coalition advancing sexual privacy rights through litigation, education and research.
For more information, visit esplerp.org and sexwork.com.
