The legislation decriminalizes unlicensed massage. Current enforcement disproportionately impacts Asian immigrant women, with penalties of up to four years in prison. Oscar Perry Abello March 8, This is your first of three free stories this month. Become a free or sustaining member to read unlimited articles, webinars and ebooks.
There are 36 licensed professions in the state of New York β including architect, midwife and athletic trainer. The education department and attorney general are responsible for investigating and prosecuting violations. But state law specifically directs local authorities to enforce licensing requirements for massage therapy β the only profession singled out.
As a result, police across the state and particularly in New York City routinely raid massage parlors, and it can get pretty ugly. Massage workers have told researchers stories of police sexually assaulting those they arrest in these raids, or taking cash and other valuables and never returning them. In , massage worker Yang Song fell four stories to her death during a police raid on a massage parlor in the Flushing section of Queens, New York.
Asian immigrant women have disproportionately been subjected to these raids on their workplaces. The bill does not change licensing requirements for massage therapy or get rid of penalties for violations, but it does decriminalize unlicensed massage work and remove local police and district attorney enforcement.
They worked with lawyers at the New York Civil Liberties Union, immigration rights organizations and other legal aid groups to draft A While the laws empowering the policing of unlicensed massage are all specific to each location, in each case those laws did not specifically target Asian or immigrant women yet those arrested for unlicensed massage were almost exclusively Asian immigrant women.
