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CityAndStateNY.com
June 21, 2021
The right to walk Kiara St. James and other activists worked for years to end police harassment of transgender people.
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OY IS IMPORTANT TO KIARA ST. JAMES. She is the co-founder and executive director of New York Transgender Advocacy Group, a trans-led organization that advocates for inclusive gender-based policies. During a video interview from Prospect Park in Brooklyn, she told City & State that much of her work has been focused on ensuring that happiness is accessible to people, particularly those who have been marginalized. “This is really about making sure that all human beings are able to bask in the sunshine that we fall into,” St. James said, regarding her advocacy work. As a Black woman of “trans experience,” St. James knows what it’s like to have her contentment interfered with based solely on how she is perceived. As she walks through the park, occasionally sharing views of its ponds and foliage on a hot June day, she recounts the multiple times that police were called on her and her friends when they attempted to have fun in Manhattan, like friends do. “It was very common for me and my girlfriends, who were all Black women, to be asked to leave establishments,” St. James recalled. “The folks that just didn’t like us and wanted to get us removed, all they had to do was say, ‘those men over there’ – no matter how female presenting we were, we were still misgendered and called men, and management would side with the other patrons who were not trans. And so oftentimes cops will be called in to remove us all because we’re convening and ordered food just like everyone else.” Like many other trans women, St. James was subject to discriminatory policing due to what was known as the “walking while trans” law. The statute, Section 240.37 of the state penal law, which outlawed “loitering for the purpose of engaging in prostitution” was introduced in 1976. The loitering law led to the disproportionate harassment and arrests of trans women and women of color. Since 1999, at least some version of a bill to overturn the law has been introduced in the state Legislature. And for years activists have been pushing to get the law repealed by suing New York City, organizing protests and marches. But nothing seemed to get them closer to eradicating the law. It wasn’t until a few months ago that it was finally overturned. On Feb. 2, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill, sponsored by state
