Eradicate the Criminalization of Sex, Gender, & Sexuality

1) Prohibit Use of Force on Pregnant Women and Children

Local and state legislatures should pass legislation that prohibits the use of force, including chokeholds, Tasers, and/or other form of physical force on pregnant women or children in favor of de-escalation. Such legislation should also require police officers to respect various genders, sexualities, and gender identities during all police interactions, including searches and placements in police custody.

2) Deter Sexual Harassment and Assault

Local law enforcement agencies, chiefs of police, and police administrators should completely bar police officers from engaging in sexual harassment and sexual assault by creating additional mechanisms to discipline and/or suspend officers who have engaged in such conduct.

3) Decriminalize Sex Work

Local and state legislatures should pass legislation that decriminalizes all aspects of sex work. At a minimum, local police departments should de-prioritize arrests related to all aspects of sex work.

4) Grant Vacaturs of Criminal Convictions to Human Trafficking Survivors

Local and state legislatures should pass legislation that grants a vacatur, a remedy that completely sets aside criminal convictions, and treats the conviction as if it never existed, to survivors of human trafficking as well as to sex workers.

5) Ensure Access to Condoms

Where sex work is still criminalized, local and state legislatures should pass legislation that eliminates the use of condoms as proof of intent to solicit or engage in prostitution, or prostitution-related activities.

6) Train Law Enforcement on Best Practices for Gender & Policing

Criminal justice actors, including law enforcement agents, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and parole and probation officers should be required to receive training on the implementation of the Department of Justice Guidance on Preventing Gender Bias in Law Enforcement that enables them to respond to people of varying expressed sexes, genders, gender identities, and sexualities; and bans the profiling of people because of their sex, gender, and/or sexuality.

7) Repeal Laws that Criminalize Sodomy

Local and state legislatures should repeal legislation that criminalizes consensual sex between adults, including laws that criminalize sodomy.

8) Repeal Laws that Criminalize HIV Status

State legislatures should modernize legislation that criminalizes HIV status by repealing laws that do not take into account the modern research on the spread of disease and which make people are living with HIV vulnerable to profiling.

9) Collect Demographic Data

Local and state legislatures should require the collection of publicly-available data, disaggregated by race, religion, sex, gender, gender identity/expression, pregnancy status, parental status, age, housing status, sexual orientation, HIV status, ethnicity, sexuality, immigration status, national origin, and religious affiliation for individuals who processed in the criminal justice system.

10) Ensure Appropriate Facilities for Girls

Local and state legislatures should pass legislation that ensures juvenile facilities for girls are examined through a gender-specific lens and developed to accommodate their needs, and protect their rights and safety.

We’ve identified programs and initiatives that incorporate some of these solutions. They may provide inspiration, albeit at times imperfect, for others who are interested in instituting some of these policies.

• California governor Jerry Brown recently signed SB-1322, which decriminalizes child prostitution, and ensures that young people in the sex trade are not treated like criminals.
• The Sex Workers Project has published a memorandum, discussing a New York state law that allow human trafficking survivors to remove their past prostitution convictions from their record. This “vacatur” law may serve as a model in other locations.
• The Seattle Police Department partnered with the transgender community to develop guidelines and training for the respectful policing of the transgender community.