ALBANY, N.Y. — For decades, a state loitering law, originally designed to discourage street prostitution, was interpreted far more broadly, resulting in what civil rights advocates said was a pattern of police harassment of anyone who they viewed as looking different or suspicious.
In more recent years, as the law became the target of lawsuits and legislative efforts to have it repealed, it became known by a shorthand description: the “walking while trans” law.
On Tuesday, the law was repealed by legislators in Albany and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, marking another victory for both the state’s progressive movement and its L.G.B.T.Q.