The Unintended – and Lethal – Consequences of California’s Safer Streets for All Act

California passed Senate Bill 357 – the “Safer Streets for All Act” – on July 1st with the stated objective of repealing “a discriminatory law that makes it a crime to loiter with the intent to engage in sex work, given that it fails to prevent street-based sex work and disproportionately results in the criminalization of transgender people and communities of color.”

Everyone should have the right to live freely and express themselves within the confines of the Constitution. Furthermore, no one should be discriminated against based on race or sexual orientation. But these are self-evident truths – that we are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights – and the advocates of SB 357 are using the auspices of “reducing discrimination” to advance a dangerous agenda that will only result in more hurt and sorrow for the marginalized.

Continue reading the entire piece here at The Hill

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Christos A. Makridis is an adjunct scholar at the Manhattan Institute. He is also a research professor at Arizona State University and the chief technology officer and head of research of Living Opera, an arts and education technology startup.

Vanessa Russell is the founding executive director of Love Never Fails (loveneverfailsus.com), a national anti-trafficking organization and professor of computer science and cybersecurity and a co-founder of Pathways To Safety (pathwaytosafety.org), a viable plan to for survivor exit services.

This piece originally appeared in The Hill