California has ended prosecution of prostitutes where they are loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution. The previous law allowed the police to target and arrest people who were wearing tight clothes and / or lots of makeup. Many of those impacted by the old law are Black and Brown trans women. This crime was so subjective and inherently profiling that it allows a police officer to arrest someone purely based on how they are dressed, whether they’re wearing high heels and certain kinds of make-up, how they’re wearing their hair, and the like.
SB 357 will repeal a discriminatory law that makes it a crime to loiter with the intent to engage in sex work, given that it fails to prevent street-based sex work and disproportionately results in the criminalization of transgender people and communities of color.