Lambda Legal wants Senate to reconsider prostitution-evidence bill ...

Lambda Legal is asking the Senate to reconsider one of hundreds of bills supported by Democrats in the chamber that were sent to the Rules Committee to die last month. The group submitted a memo to the Senate today on legislation that would prevent police and prosecutors from using possession of condoms or other contraceptives as evidence of prostitution and prostitution-related offenses. Gay and bisexual men, transgender people, at-risk youth and sex workers are disproportionately impacted by HIV, according to Lambda Legal.

?It makes no sense that the New York City Department of Public Health has distributed over 200 million free condoms as a matter of good public health practice, and then the NYPD and prosecutors try to use them as evidence of prostitution,? Hayley Gorenberg, Lambda Legal deputy legal director, said in a statement. ?When law enforcement sends a message not to carry condoms, it puts the health and safety of New Yorkers in jeopardy. ?Now it is the legislature?s responsibility to take action to protect the public.?

Millions of condoms have been distributed free of charge throughout New York City to help protect public health, and it is ?unfair and misleading? for law enforcement to use them as evidence against people who use them, she said.

Senate Democrats, who are in the minority, have sponsored the legislation for more than a decade, without success. It died in committee since it was first introduced in 1999. It is sponsored by Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, D-Brooklyn. Assemblywoman Barbara Clark, D-Queens, has been the sponsor in 2011 and this year.

In a news conference last month, Senate Democrats accused the GOP majority of ?censoring? 311 bills they had planned to bring to committee votes by using a Senate rule that was adopted three years ago. The rule permits senators to file motions to have bills heard and voted on in committee. Democrats? bills were pulled from various committees and ?put in a dark vault where the Senate majority hopes they?re never seen or heard from again,? Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Brooklyn, said at the time.

Senate Republicans said their Democratic counterparts were trying to abuse the rule.

This is the Lambda Legal memo:
LambdaLegalMem

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