For the Sex Work Strike in London on March 8th, I wrote and delivered a speech about trans people in sex work and the ways we are uniquely vulnerable. This was intended not just to raise awareness, but as a call to action for more support from those who consider themselves allies of sex workers. Here is the content of that speech (which differed slightly on the day due to nerves and a desire not to rely on my notes too much!):
We all know that within sex work, the most marginalized people are the most impacted by criminalization. Today I’m going to talk about trans people as a demographic, and how we’re vulnerable.
Trans people are poorer, more likely to be homeless, and face widespread employment and housing discrimination. Trans people are more likely to sell sex because of that poverty and are disproportionately targeted for violence. This hits trans women and transfeminine people harder.
The Trans Murder Monitoring Project found that of the 375 trans people murdered between October 2020 and September 2021, 58% with a known occupation were sex workers and 96% were trans women and femmes. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey in the US in 2009 found 7.1% of transmasculine people had sold sex and 13.1% of transfeminine people had. This was significantly impacted by race, with black trans people being over 6 times more likely to have sold sex. I wish I could give you data from the UK, or that’s more recent, or that isn’t a gross underestimation of the number of murders, but the lack of data itself is a symptom of the problem. I know a huge number of trans people in sex work, including trans men, but I can’t demonstrate our total numbers.
We are terrified when we go to work within a system that denies us various rights. Women are terrified living under a violent patriarchal system. I stand beside every sex worker in a country where we cannot legally work with others. I stand beside every sex worker who has been robbed by police under bullshit laws that call our earnings the “proceeds of crime”. I stand beside sex workers who’ve been raped by the same corrupt police we’re supposed to believe only criminalize us to protect us.
Before I came out as trans, I worked under the guise of being a cis woman. I sold sex presenting as a girl when I was homeless at 17 and was assaulted. When I reported being raped by that client, the police mocked me and barely investigated, like they do with most cis women.
I self-medicated with drugs to avoid thinking about my gender. I was alienated from heavily-gendered victim support services. By the time I was ready to come out I feared losing the support I did have from the sex work community I’d found. My hatred of clients who abused me had become, at least in part, a hatred of men – and transitioning almost felt like becoming the enemy.
After coming out, I was fetishized. I was desperate to earn enough for trans-affirming care that the NHS is required to offer but would have taken 5 years to provide. So many trans people cannot stop selling sex, no matter the risk of rape or death, to afford healthcare that should be free!
Shortly after I started testosterone, I worked in a brothel pretending to be a cis woman. Clients commented on my genitals with suspicion, one suspecting me of being a trans woman who had genital surgery. I was terrified of not being able to keep up a higher voice, or of a client finding me too masculine and getting violent. Even when I was subject to clients pushing boundaries or insulting me or bruising me, I considered myself lucky. I avoided further attacks that I couldn’t have if I’d been a post-op trans woman who was scrutinized in the same ways.
Many trans people, particularly trans women, face abuse regardless of how we present ourselves or whether we tell people we’re trans from the very first word on our profile. Clients will seek out trans sex workers on purpose with the intent of sexually assaulting us or beating us. They know society sees us as disposable. Do not believe the lies spread about trans people. We aren’t deceivers and we aren’t killed for lying about who we are – we’re killed for telling the truth and living that truth.
From the added financial burden of medical transition and job discrimination, trans people are forced into poverty. Resources that trans sex workers of all genders require are often provided only to cis women. When we access trans services, they react negatively or withhold help because we sell sex. It’s so hard to find help that serves us as sex workers AND as trans people.
I’ve been harassed and sent death threats by TERFs in between clients who treat my body like a fetish object, all while desperately fundraising for top surgery. Sex workers in my life have unconditionally supported me through all of it and helped me fundraise. Every sex worker should have access to community support like I’ve had; to be able join a union and attend sex-worker-led groups where they can access resources. Criminalization and stigma keep us from reaching the sex workers most in need of help.
As trans sex workers, we want rights, not rescue. We want to live.
Jack Talks About Sex Work 