the pride
ISSUE NUMBER 64, VOLUME 35 | SEPTEMBER 17 – OCTOBER 1, 2021 9.17.2021 – 10.3.2021
WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM
LOS ANGELES
⚫ 1
THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER
MS-13’s Stronghold on MacArthur Park and Transphobia
A look at violent gang’s presence at iconic Los Angeles park By TimoThy michael
MS-13, a vicious street gang, continues its stronghold on MacArthur Park making it unsafe for many who visit but specifically transgender individuals. After a transgender woman was brutally attacked in MacArthur Park on October 2020, which marked the second time in weeks that a transgender woman had been stabbed nearly to death in the Los Angeles park by members of MS-13, a street gang that considers the park the heart of its territory. Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s. Originally, the gang was
set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area. Over the years several indictments have been made against alleged members of the MS-13 gang including the Fulton clique of MS-13 which is a subset of the gang that claims parts of North Hollywood, Panorama City and Van Nuys as its territory. Members of MS-13, who have a tight hold on MacArthur Park, have made it clear that they are motivated by a hateful, bigoted desire to rid their turf of transgender people. What has been unmentioned is the financial agreements that occur between these transgender woman and the gang members which put them in contact in the first place. The women had been paying members of MS-13 a weekly fee — “taxes” in the gang’s words — simply for permission to be in the park, according to police reports and interviews with victims and the police. They were among the street vendors, drug dealers, sex workers, shopkeepers and others who every day must pay for a commodity those in more affluent
MacArthur Park.
neighborhoods do not even know exists — the
Photo: Getty Images
MacArthur Park, see page 4
Legislation To Repeal Discriminatory Loitering Law Targeting Sex Workers Passes Assembly “Sex workers, LGBTQ people, and people of color deserve to be safe on our streets,” says bill author Sen. Wiener By Sam caTaNZaro A piece of legislation in Sacramento aims to address disproportionate criminalization of trans, Black and Brown women, and perpetuates violence toward sex workers. Earlier this month, Senator Scott Wiener’s (D-San Francisco) Senate Bill 357, the Safer Streets for All Act, passed the State Assembly by a vote of 41-26. It now heads to the Senate for a concurrence vote, and then to the Governor’s desk to be signed. SB 357 repeals a provision of California law criminalizing “loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution.” This criminal provision — arrests for which are based on an officer’s subjective perception
of whether a person is “acting like” or “looks like” they intend to engage in sex work — results in the disproportionate criminalization of trans, Black and Brown women, and perpetuates violence toward sex workers. SB 357 is sponsored by a large coalition made up of former and current sex workers, LGTBQ groups like Equality California and Transgender Gender-variant and Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), and civil rights groups like the ACLU. The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST LA) is supporting the legislation. SB 357 does not decriminalize soliciting or engaging in sex work. Rather, it simply eliminates an loitering offense that leads to harmful treatment of people for simply “appearing” to be a sex worker. This crime is 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. This criminal provision is inherently discriminatory and targets people not for any action but simply based on how
Sacramento Capitol Building in California.
they look. People who engage in sex work deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Criminalizing sex work does not make sex workers or communities safer. Most criminal penalties for sex workers, loitering laws included, do nothing to stop sex crimes
Photo: Getty Images
against sex workers and human trafficking. In fact, loitering laws make it harder to identify trafficking victims; trafficking victims are often afraid to come forward in fear of being arrested or incarcerated.
SB 357, see page 6