CJI Grantees Celebrate Major Legislative Victory in New York!

It’s Women’s History Month and CJI grantees are making herstory. I am so pleased to share this important legislative victory for New York state. In February, a bill repealing the state’s 1976 anti-loitering law, infamously known as the “walking while trans” ban, was signed into law. The measure, intended to curtail prostitution, was applied so broadly that police used it to justify arrests based solely on how someone was dressed or where on the street they happened to be standing. This disastrous law resulted in decades of discrimination against law-abiding women of color and trans people. In 2018, the vast majority of those arrested under the statute were Black and Latinx (91%) and women (80%). Local advocacy groups have been working to repeal this law for decades. One grassroots nonprofit that fought and pushed for the bill’s passage is the New York Transgender Advocacy Group, a CJI grantee. Your continued support is vital to making victories like this one possible. CJI is gaining momentum—we hope to have more good news to share with you later this month. You can help our grantees advance more urgent legislative reforms across the country with your contribution to CJI today. Yours in Solidarity, Aleah Bacquie Vaughn Executive Director Join us! Find out how you can get more involved with CJI here.