SPECS Panther Column — “Loitering for the purpose of prostitution” laws and modern legislation

Loitering for the purpose of prostitution (LPP) is a violation or misdemeanor in many state governments and municipalities across the U.S.. These laws define this charge as wandering or remaining in public spaces for long periods of time with the intent of selling sex or promoting prostitution. While states take varying approaches, many mandate penalties including hundreds of dollars in fines and imprisonment for six months to a year. Furthermore, in some states, if a suspect is caught loitering within the proximity of a school or a church, the defense can become a class A misdemeanor: on the same level as domestic violence, assault or driving under the influence. 

LPP is a stop-and-frisk ordinance, which means that a police officer can stop and pat down an individual on the sole basis of “reasonable suspicion.” In these cases, it is up to the officer to deem what is considered dangerous or against the morals of public decency. Modern LPP laws and their accompanying subjective arrests only serve to disproportionately target and penalize marginalized groups, whether LGBTQIA+, BIPOC or human trafficking victims. 

SPECS recognizes the existing systems of oppression that work to criminalize individuals on the basis of their sexuality, gender, race or field of employment. Legislative protection for all individuals and communities is not a privilege but a right, and we must continue pushing policymakers to codify bills that promote sexual health, destigmatize sex and empower vulnerable groups.

LPP ordinances, also known as “walking while trans bills,” do not just criminalize sex work, but in many states, they extend to include the practice of sodomy, which originally criminalized anal or oral sex between two male-identifying, consenting adults. LPP codes allow for police to surveil and charge individuals who are suspected of “inducing, enticing, soliciting or procuring another to purchase sexual intercourse or physical intimacies in an act of prostitution or sodomy.” 

As these laws are ambiguous and solely based on “reasonable suspicion,” police officers have the right to stop and search any individual suspected of prostitution. Therefore, this policy continues to be utilized as a method to police and surveil BIPOC communities and target LGBTQIA+ youth, primarily trans women of color. Black and low-income communities within the United States have disproportionately been victims of rampant over-policing and government surveillance due to historic racist policies, residential segregation, redlining, concentrated urban poverty and revenue-based policing. 

Along with communities of color, LPP laws and other anti-loitering statutes are used to target unhoused populations and individuals with previous convictions. These codes sustain and nourish the “prison to prison pipeline” which refers to the systemic pattern in which previously convicted individuals are more likely to be reincarcerated than those who have not been. The ongoing systematic terrorization of sex workers, LGBQTIA+ individuals, BIPOC communities and unhoused populations is ongoing and rampant with these biased ordinances that permit racial biases and socioeconomic prejudices to be sanctioned under the guise of law-and-order. 

To counteract the discriminatory nature of these laws, states like New York and Vermont are repealing dated statutes and taking measures to enact change at the legislative level. In 2020, Vermont’s House Judiciary Committee unanimously advanced H.568 that would have provided protections for sex workers who report crimes. This bill, although never enacted into law, would have prevented police officers and law enforcement agents from charging crime or assault victims for sex work or low-level drug possession. Additionally, on June 7, 2022, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed into law H.746, which sought to update the Burlington City Charter’s language on sex work. The law repealed the city council’s ability to “restrain and suppress houses of ill fame and disorderly houses, and to punish common prostitutes and persons consorting therewith.” While H.764 does not alter the way prostitution is criminalized under Vermont law, this change in language attempts to dismantle the stigma around prostitution and signify the difference between consensual sex work and human trafficking. In fact, just a few weeks ago, S.54 was introduced in the Senate, which seeks to decriminalize voluntary sex work while maintaining penalties for human trafficking or coercion.

In New York, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law Senate Bill S1315, which repeals all LPP laws. Individuals in New York can no longer be subject to stop-and-frisk ordinances or biased arrests for “loitering” in public spaces. Since the LPP laws were first codified in New York in 1976, the statute was used to predominantly prosecute trans women of color for selling sex or even engaging in actions such as waving, standing at a bus stop, smoking or wearing a skirt. In 2018 alone, 91% of people arrested under the statute were Black and Latine, and 80% identified as women. 

Various nonprofit organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, Decriminalize Sex Work and Amnesty International are currently working to galvanize collective action and propose bills that would eradicate archaic anti-sex and prostitution laws, dismantling historically racist and transphobic policies that criminalize individuals simply for existing in public spaces. The fight to protect trans women, people of color and sex workers from our own legal system is an ongoing battle; however, Vermont and New York are leading the charge for progressive legislation that ensures the protection of all communities. No matter the political climate, policymakers both in and outside of Vermont are working to update outdated legislation and introduce new bills that safeguard victims of human trafficking and sex workers alike.