Cuomo signs bill to repeal ‘walking while trans’ law

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has repealed a decades-old anti-loitering law that LGBTQ advocates have long condemned as discriminatory.

The law, passed in 1976, targeted “loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.” However, critics blasted it as overly broad, pointing to police harassment especially against transgender women. The law eventually earned the “walking while trans” name.

“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 said in a release Tuesday.

“For too long trans people have been unfairly targeted and disproportionately policed for innocent, lawful conduct based solely on their appearance,” Cuomo added. “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. New York has always led the nation on LGBTQ rights, and we will continue that fight until we achieve true equality for all.”

Richard Saenz, an attorney for the LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal, told NBC News that the law essentially allowed police to remove people who they deemed “criminal” from public spaces.

Saenz said, “We saw this law being used against LGBT people and specifically transgender women or people who appeared more feminine.”

TS Candii, executive director of the group Black Trans News, said that “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“New York is a safer place because the #WalkingWhileTrans ban was repealed and sealed,” Candii added in a statement shared by Cuomo’s office.