New CA Law To End Loitering Arrests For Sex Workers

CALIFORNIA — A new state law will ban police from arresting people who loiter with the intention of prostitution.

The controversial bill has divided lawmakers in the Legislature and sparked a conflict against transgender rights activists and those working to end human trafficking.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 357, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, on Friday. The measure will also allow those who were previously convicted or are serving sentences to seek a dismissal from the court and seal the record of the conviction.

"Everyone — no matter their race, gender or how they make a living — deserves to feel safe on our streets," Wiener wrote in a statement.

Black adults accounted for 56.1 percent of loitering charges in Los Angeles between 2017 and 2019, despite making up less than 10 percent of the city population, Newsom wrote.

"The author brought forth this legislation because the crime of loitering has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown women and members of the LGBTQ community," Newsom wrote in a statement.

The law does not legalize prostitution, he wrote, but it does revoke consequences of a law that has led to "disproportionate harassment of women and transgender adults."

"For far too long, California law has been used to profile, harass and arrest transgender and gender-nonconforming people simply for existing in public spaces," Tony Hoang, executive director of the LGTBQ rights group Equality California, said in praising the repeal, according to the Associated Press.

Republicans in the Senate and Assembly reportedly asked Newsom to veto the measure, and other opponents raised the concern that the bill could be harmful.

“Instead of providing help to survivors, this bill is hurting them. It’s increasing demand,” said Vanessa Russell, founder of the anti-sex-trafficking organization Love Never Fails in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Associated Press reported.

The bill is the latest effort to dismantle the harmful effects of such arrests. A bill passed in 2016 banned police from arresting minors for sex work and instead reframed them as victims.