#condom bill

A new report highlights the many ways that LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS are treated throughout the criminal justice system. One policy — using condoms as evidence that people, especially transgender people of color, are engaging in sex work — strikes many as particularly wrong-headed, yet remains surprisingly common, most notably in the NYPD.

“One time I was standing on the street [in NYC] talking with some friends [on a Saturday night] and an officer approached me. She asked for my ID. … The dispatcher told her that my record was clear, but instead of letting me go, she said she wanted to see in my purse….

When she looked inside, she saw two condoms. She called the precinct back and asked for a police car to come. I asked her, ‘Why are you locking me up? I can’t carry condoms?’ She replied, 'You are getting locked up for prostitution.’

When police take our condoms or lock us up for carrying condoms, they are putting our lives at risk. How am I supposed to protect myself from HIV and STDs when I am scared to leave my house with condoms in my purse?”

—Trina, a youth leader with the NYC group Streetwise & Safe, quoted in “A Roadmap for Change, Federal Policy Solutions for Addressing the Criminalization of LGBT People and People with HIV”

New York state lawmakers are considering a bill to end the practice. More on that here. Meanwhile, the NYPD told the Associated Press that it is reviewing the legislation, as well as its condom policy.

UPDATED 5/12: associatedpress

“The NYPD will no longer confiscate unused condoms from suspected sex workers to be used as evidence of prostitution, ending a longstanding practice that had been criticized by civil rights groups for undermining efforts to combat AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. Under the new policy announced Monday, officers may continue to seize condoms as evidence in sex-trafficking and promotion of prostitution cases, but they will not use them in support of prostitution cases….

"A policy that inhibits people from safe sex is a mistake and dangerous,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

(Buttons by Streetwise & Safe, photos by K. Lundie)