Take a Stand Against Transphobia and Sex Worker Oppression
Broken link fixed: Story here.
Kudos are going to the organizers of this protest against transphobia and sex worker oppression.
Residents of a downtown Toronto neighbourhood have apparently bestowed themselves with the moral duty of “kicking out prostitutes” who they say have “disturbed the peace” in their otherwise magically perfect neighbourhood.
Instead of lobbying for anti-prostitution laws, worker safety, or advocating for the rights of sex trade workers so that we can all live more peacefully together, for the last three months these residents have been harassing sex workers, specifically transwomen, to the point of assault.
This Friday August 15th, supporters of human rights and dignity FOR ALL will be gathering at the corner of Homewood and Maitland at 11pm to demand an end to this injustice.
Check out the Facebook event and hopefully we’ll see you there!
Lisa, I would caution you against snap judgments. Over the past week some people on both sides of the issue have made soem injudicious remarks to be certain and tempers have flared. For the residents, the issue is street prostitution and what comes with it. Others see it as a trans-phobia issue and stillothers have their own agendas.
Advocating that angry activists descend on this street will serve to intimidate residents and further polarize the issue. If enough activists show up (invitations have gone to hundreds of people) then what we may see is local residents being terrorized by radical elements.
I stress that there have been absolutely zero incidents of assault, criminal harassment (plenty of bothering but no criminal harassment) ont he part of the residents. there have, howver been several incidents where the trans sex workers have lashed out at residents.
If you intend to attend this gathering I woudl ask that you be careful not to get carried away by the mob mentality.
michael
August 14, 2008 at 12:30 pm
plenty of bothering but no criminal harassment
How the hell is “bothering” not criminal harassment? What constitutes “bothering” to you? Yelling? Shoving? What?
And when people who are there to support people who are marginalized, have no secure place to live, and are constantly “bothered” by police who falsely arrest them and “bothered” by men who bash their heads in with fire extinguishers; when people come to peacefully protest that, and yes they will be loud, all of the sudden, we go from “bothering” to Oh Noez Teh Radicals Will Ruin Our Property Values? People peacefully protesting a blatant injustice are “terrorists”? But its ok for you and other privileged property owners to “bother” sex industry workers / trans women and that’s not terrorism?
*spits*
gallinggalla
August 14, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Michael,
It’s really unfortunate that this neighborhood is lashing out against the women who are not themselves responsible for any crime that may happen in the neighborhood – and rather than do anything about the fact that so many of these women are driven to survival prostitution, the neighborhood’s population choose to bother them, or try to get them out of the neighborhood.
This is why the call to activism.
Lisa Harney
August 15, 2008 at 2:44 am
Shoving a person is assault.
Yelling at people is disturbing the peace.
Threats and stalking are criminal harassment
When I stand several feet away from a sex-worker with a sign that says “No Sex work on our street.” my actions are intended to discourage the John from stopping and to make her uncomfortable enough that she will take her business elsewhere. i’m sure it annoys her but no-one is harmed and no one’s rights have been violated.
If other street vendors are not allowed on Homewood why are prostitutes permitted to advertize and sell their wares? I’d rather buy a hot-dog than a BJ at 3:00AM.
And finally… I fail to believe that Trans-women can’t get jobs. MAC Cosmetics, to cite one example has LOTS of trans-women working their counters.
Michael
August 15, 2008 at 8:27 am
Oh Michael.
I fail to believe someone would post something that stupid. AND YET.
Unemployment in the trans community’s astronomically higher than the general population. It’s not cause we’re lazy or disportionately stupid or unqualified. It’s blatant discrimination.
It’s because we have to be five times more qualified to stand a chance. And even then…
If you do not out yourself as trans, fact is you stand a MUCH better chance of being employed. But some trans women are obviously trans, because of our appearance, voice etc, or are outed by background checks, Social Security no-matches etc.
But hey, cosmetics and sex work is all people like us are really good for anyway, right?
Now, *I* have a PhD. Maybe you, oh brave soldier of morality, could make me a cup of tea. One sugar, dear. I hope that doesn’t strain your obviously already taxed brain.
queenemily
August 15, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Michael, why don’t you try living on the street, getting constantly raped by the police, arrested and raped in prison, selling sex to eat, etc. for just a month.
All while being harassed and verbally abused by nice folk like your neighbors.
If you want these women to stop selling sex in your neighborhood, offer them jobs (at decent wages) wherever you work. Help them find apartments for a decent price. Invite them in for dinner. Help them get their legal documents changed so they at least have a chance at a job. Lobby your representatives to pass an inclusive ENDA or similar bills locally. Donate or volunteer at a local shelter that has trans* positive policies.
drakyn
August 15, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Michael, you’re a fucking idiot, and I fail to believe this hurts you, because you are clearly dumber than a slime mold and thus have no “feelings.”
belledame222
August 15, 2008 at 2:35 pm
As Queen Emily points out, trans women have a hard time finding employment – just seeing a trans woman in a job (and wow, could we get more stereotypical?) doesn’t mean all trans women automatically have access to that or any other job. Many trans women find themselves fired after being outed, or unable to get a job in the first place, which is why so many turn to prostitution.
And this idea, this belief that prostitution heralds greater crime problems, and thus the sex workers are somehow held responsible for the crime problems and must be blamed for it, attacked for it, driven away for it, to save the neighborhood, it really does look like that women’s lives are seen as expendable.
Why doesn’t it ever occur to anyone to offer help instead of scorn? Why is it that the women take the brunt of the blame and violence? This is not the first time that a community has attacked sex workers for this. Drakyn has some suggestions that don’t stigmatize sex workers for everything that may go wrong after they set up in a neighborhood.
Lisa Harney
August 15, 2008 at 2:43 pm
The trans sex-workers on this street brought this on themselves through their appalling lack of respect for their neighbours. It’s really that simple.
We have the power to shut down the stroll whenever we choose and we are sick to death of their behaviour. If they want to work on this street then they need to negotiate the terms under which they do so.
Michael
August 18, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Lisa, thank you for providing a venue for these discussions. I think, however, that would be rude of me to continue to hammer away at the same issue over and over again.
The issue for us is respect. the sex-workers come to our street and work in front of our homes. The challenge is that there seems to be no one on the sex-worker/trans side who is prepared to sit down at the table and make promises that will be kept.
I submit that the solution is to have trans-people monitor the activities on our street keeping a lid on unacceptable behaviour and ensuring that both residents and trans sex-workers are permitted to live quiet lives. Rhetorical flourishes (dumber than a slime mold? What-ev-er) accomplish nothing except to heighten differences and to harden attitudes.
The choice for the trans sex-worker is a stark one: Learn how to live in peace with your neighbours or we will push you out. Other strolls are far less safe than Homewood. I cannot speak for the HMSA but I can promise you that a reasonable voice advocating for the sex-workers, someone who can make promises and keep those promises will be heard.
In closing I would like to state that the residents of Homewood Ave are not ogres. We are painfully aware of the challenges that transwomen and transmen face in this world though we don’t pretend to understand what it means to walk in your shoes.
Michael Ruhland
Michael
August 19, 2008 at 6:22 am
[...] force sex workers, in particular trans* sex workers, out of “their” neighbourhood (h/t Questioning Transphobia). More [...]
Transphobia and Sex Worker Oppression in Toronto « High On Rebellion
August 19, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Homewood has been home to the trans-worker stroll (and place of transwomen murder) for decades. There were transwomen there likely before Michael and the rest of his gay, white, gentrifying neighbours decided it was a cool, convenient place to live in brand new condos and designer town homes.
sara
August 21, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Is this another case of gentrification occurring and the new residents “ethnically cleansing” the old “icky dirty” residents from “our” neighborhood?
Friday Jones
September 10, 2009 at 4:50 pm
hey lisa, here is a controversy for you:
any chance of a piece on caster semenya being “defined” as intersexed?
if she self defines as a women, has a vagina, and does not have a uterus and the ovaries are, at present POSSIBLY being refered to as “testes”
(not neccessarily by doctors)
is she not a woman?
how is it fair to define her against her will?
there is not even a chromosome test yet saying xx vs xy.
why does anyone have the right to call her a ‘hermaphrodite’?
how can any group of people appropriate some one and define them without their consent?
or “assign” the term intersex to a women who is saying that woman is her identity?
javier
ps not trying to threadjack you.
javier
September 10, 2009 at 6:33 pm
ps
as a T person myself, i define ‘woman’ as by
“that’s what YOU tell me you are”…..
javier
September 10, 2009 at 6:35 pm
lisa i’m sorry! this is my last threadjack but i don’t see a “reach us” link:
now pam’s house blend has up re/ caster as intersexed,
so i posted this,hope you’ll touch on this issue-
it’s just sickening to watch the fail all over…
“why are we “defining” caster semenya?
she self defines as a woman.
that makes her a woman.
she does not self define as intersexed.
there is not even the xx vs xy test results yet.
(if it matters)
if a person can be born xy,have a male body and be a woman,
why are we defining caster, a woman with a vagina(if it matters)no uterus, and unknown “testes/tissue”, etc.
caster says she is a woman. this is all we need to know.
this WHOLE THING is horribly insensitive to her.
(and before anyone says she doesn’t like dresses, and likes sports etc, that applies to LESBIAN WOMEN sometimes too!)
LOTS of people owe this WOMAN an apology”
*why does no one get it?*
javier
September 10, 2009 at 6:57 pm
“then what we may see is local residents being terrorized by radical elements.”
Michael, if you are any representation of your community, I say: Let them. All of you more than deserve it.
Phi
September 12, 2009 at 4:43 am
Toronto needs to deal with its lack of access for trans people, especially trans women, to social services and medical care far more than it needs to worry about sex workers. If you want harm reduction involving sex work, you need to give these women other options. I have a good friend who wrote her dissertation on the various social realities of Homewood, but…above all, you have to remember that the social, mental, and physical health delivery system in the GTA funnels trans women to the Clarke.
I don’t think it takes a genius to know why this is a far bigger issue than sex workers. Or, alternately, why cisgendered sex workers don’t deal with the same sort of formalized harrassment. Are people out on Jarvis and Carleton or Sherbourne and Dundas? I don’t think so.
And one more thing. As cis queers, we shoulder much of the responsibility for the oppression that’s happening for one very simple reason: homogentrification is much of the force behind bitching about trans sex workers on Homewood. Shame, scorn, and a lack of social resources, along with one horrible person, killed Shawn Keegan and Deanna Wilkinson right there on Homewood in 1996 and our community didn’t do a damn thing about it. Grayce Baxter is long forgotten, while we’re at it, though her senseless murder happened elsewhere.
If this makes me a radical element, so be it. I wasn’t aware that seeking social justice and equality was “radical”, but i refuse to be silent in the face of people once again choosing to blame the victim and not the perpetrator.
algormortis
September 12, 2009 at 7:43 am
Also, I think it’s just precious that Michael thinks that monitoring sex workers activities and making sure they don’t hurt the property values of a bunch of bubble-buying professional-class Torontonians is suddenly the community responsibility of other trans women. I’m an economist by training, a lesbian (not to say that this is a purely heterosexual activity), and, not that it’s any of your goddamn business, not sexually active. What exactly do I have in common with a sex-trade worker, beyond the repeated attempts, explicit and implicit, of the Ontario government to frustrate and marginalize me? Maybe ensuring marginalized women have the freedom to use their bodies could be something that the residents of your neighbourhood help fund some infrastructure for, you know, the same way you fund public transit so that your roads aren’t clogged with cars.
Valerie Keefe
September 12, 2009 at 9:06 am
I live in an area where there are a lot of sex workers. I would say that many of them are survival sex workers (although I wouldn’t want to assume anything about other people).
In the three years I have lived here, I have witnessed far more discrimination and violence against workers than harassment (etc) against myself and other community members. A lot of the time the so called harassment people experience from sex workers is a defense against their own actions/behaviours against the workers. Sex workers are a part of my community and they deserve to be safe and respected just like everyone else.
There is a local community group seeking to displace these workers – get them out of “our backyard” and that disgusts me. We should be working, as a community, to ensure everyone – including sex workers – feel and are safe. This means that people need to check their preconceived notions about workers and start acting like workers are valuable members of the community – like everyone else.
Maybe if non-worker community members are feeling harassed it’s because they are harassing or are otherwise disrespecting the workers, most of whom (in my experience) don’t want a big public profile; they just want to work (and in some cases, survive) without the attention of local residents and police.
Have people taken the time to get to know the workers? Said hello? Shared a cigarette? Community building involves respect and sex workers are some of the most marginalized members of our communities. Harassment is further marginalization and is completely unacceptable.
monika
September 15, 2009 at 7:01 am