Sex Workers Challenge Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature Statute Deon Haywood Executive Director Women With A Vision New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

What Is a Crime Against Nature? In 1805, Louisiana’s first criminal code is enacted, including a provision criminalizing the “abominable and detestable Crime against Nature, committed with mankind or beast.” In 1942, the Crime against Nature statute was amended to read: 14:89. Crime against Nature (1) The unnatural carnal copulation by a human being with another of the same sex or opposite sex or with an animal. In the last third of the 20 th century, sodomy laws began to specifically target homosexuality. These laws sought “to classify and penalize homosexuals as a subordinate class of citizens,” and sodomy and homosexuality became understood as synonymous. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 2

Criminalizing Solicitation In 1982, the Louisiana legislature added the solicitation provision at the request of the New Orleans Police Department in response to a “growing problem in male prostitution.” 14:89. Crime against nature (2) The solicitation by a human being of another with the intent to engage in any unnatural carnal copulation for compensation. Police had sole discretion over whether to charge someone with CANS or prostitution Their enforcement quickly extended beyond the “male problem” they claimed to be trying to solve to women and transgendered people working in the street-based sex trades. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 3

CANS vs Prostitution CANS (La. R.S. § 89.2.)Prostitution (La. R.S. § 82.) What is being criminalized?CANS is the solicitation by a human being of another with the intent to engage in any unnatural carnal copulation for compensation. Prostitution is the solicitation by one person of another with the intent to engage in indiscriminate sexual intercourse with the latter for compensation. Punishment for a 1 st offense?Up to 6 months imprisonment, fine of up to $500, or both. Punishment for a 2 nd offense?Up to 5 years imprisonment, with or without hard labor, fine of up to $2,000, or both. Up to 2 years imprisonment, with or without hard labor, fine from $250 to $2,000, or both. Sex offender registration required?YES!! No, never. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 4

Enforcement Post-Katrina After Katrina, the Department of Justice made more than $20 million available to New Orleans to rebuild the city’s criminal justice system, which included a mandate for targeting and apprehending “violent felony fugitives” like sex offenders. With the assistance of the United States Marshals Service, people with CANS convictions were tracked down and placed on the sex offender registry list, often with increased penalties if they had not registered at the time of their conviction. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 5

Who is a “Sex Offender” in NOLA? Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 6

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Once You Have a CANS Conviction You MUST: 1. Carry state ID emblazoned with the words “SEX OFFENDER.” 2. Pay $60 a year. Failure to pay the fee may result in up to 6 months in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both. 3. Pay $250 - $750 to print and mail postcards to neighbors every time you move, notifying them of your name, description, address, and the fact that you have a CANS conviction. 4. Publish your name, and the fact that you were convicted of SCAN, in the newspaper. 5. Appear on the sex offender website. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 8

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Structuring HIV Vulnerability This strategy for criminalizing people working in the sex trades emerged within a climate of over-incarceration, poverty, drug criminalization, persistent lack of access to services, violence, and lack of respect for women’s health, which all make our communities more vulnerable to HIV. What CANS did was to completely disconnect our community members from what remained of a social safety net, making it impossible to them to recognize and develop their goals, dreams and desires. That is why our people called the CANS law and its enforcement ‘NO JUSTICE.’ And it is their words that we took as our organizing call moving forward… Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 10

Launching NO Justice In July 2009, WWAV launched the NO Justice Project to fight for the rights of people unjustly placed on the sex offender registry list because of a CANS conviction. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 11

Reaching Out We took the stories of NO Justice far and wide: to the New Orleans City Council, to community mobilizations, to organizations across the South, to international conferences… Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 12

Assembling our Legal Team And we joined forces with an incredible team of lawyers: Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Andrea J. Ritchie, Esq., and Stuart H. Smith Law Clinic of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 13

Timeline to Our Win Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 14

Speaking Our Truths “There are few times in our work when we are truly brought to the point of being speechless. For all of us at Women With A Vision, today is one of those days. Today, we celebrate with the women and men who courageously stood up to combat the criminalization of their lives – and won. Today, we celebrate a victory for all people who have told their truths that justice might be done. WWAV has always just been a catalyst for women affected by this…” Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 15

Partial Justice When Judge Feldman ruled that it is unconstitutional to force people to register as a sex offender because of a CANS conviction when people convicted of prostitution don’t have to register, he only ordered the state to remove the 9 plaintiffs in that case from the registry. That means that there are still almost 500 people on the registry because of a CANS conviction. A prosecutor can still charge people with a CANS convictions with failure to register and put a warrant out for their arrest if they do not continue to meet the registration requirements. So, on June 26, 2012, we filed a federal class action lawsuit to remove all individuals from the Louisiana sex offender registry who are required to register solely because of a CANS conviction. Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 16

And the Fight Continues… Deon Haywood | | Washington D.C., USA, July 2012| MOSY07 - Ending Criminalization 17