NZPC and transgender sex workers

1. NZPC and transgender sex workers

2. History of NZPC • Formed in 1987 by sex workers and their allies; • Involved street based trans workers from the beginning; • Received funding from the Ministry of Health; • Supports the rights, health and well-being of all sex workers;

3. NZPC has 5 community bases in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Tauranga, where transgender workers can meet, with outreach workers visiting other areas; • In June 2003, the Prostitution Reform Act came into effect ending years of running the risk and experiencing the reality of being arrested and humiliated in court for soliciting. • Disappointingly, there are some in the community who want to see the law reversed, and see transgender sex workers recriminalised.

4. NZPC resources

5. NZPC helped designed these for the Ministry of Health

6. Information and support • NZPC provides information and support to street based sex workers to help keep them safe. • This was created by trans street workers from NZPC as a guide to personal safety and responsibility.

7. Transgender sex workers • The majority of transgender sex workers work on the street, and are Maori; • Comprise around 11% of the total number of sex workers, but form about 25% of street workers overall: • Auckland: approx 45% transgender; • Wellington: approx 90% transgender; • Christchurch: approx 15% transgender. • Most transgender workers are over the age of 18, and many have worked as sex workers for a long time. Abel, G., Fitzgerald, L, Brunton, C (2007). The impact of the Prostitution Reform Act on the Health and safety practices of sex workers. Christchurch: Christchurch School of Medicine.

8. Motivations to work • 78% of transgender sex workers started work as sex workers to pay for a social life, to go out, or to buy luxuries, while 53% thought it looked glamorous. • 21% started work to pay for an education, but none were made to work by another person. • 92% of transgender workers started because they needed money, but many also identified sex work as a way to explore their sexuality.

9. Georgia, transgender street worker, Wellington “... Initially, when I first did it, it was out of curiosity. Like back in the early 70s when I first went to Auckland to live, it was purely out of curiosity, `cause everyone else, all my other friends, they did it. I was the only oddball out at that time ... For me being a sex workers, it was more about returning to my roots I suppose. ... And still keeping in touch with people, like minded people like myself.”

10. Dora, transgender street worker, Auckland “... It was mainly through friends. It was just excitement, it was something different. We were only young, it was pocket money. It was part of being different. ...We were just a whole group of us...getting from the clients some sort of validation of being transsexual.” “...If I want to leave, I will, if I don’t, I won’t. I mean, if I’m there, and I’m able, I might. It’s always been like that.”

11. “... I think it’s the independence. Like you know your ability- I’m talking from a street perspective- it’s your ability to choose. You don’t have to hop in a car with a guy. You don’t have to do a job. You can tell him to piss off. It’s the adventure. The excitement of not knowing what’s going to happen that night. It’s a bit of that. There’s the money, which can be good. You work for how long you want to work. You can do a job, pop round to the bar, have a dance, go and see someone, have a chat and go back to work or something. It’s just lots of freedom.”

12. “... Up here in Auckland I found it can be a bit scary feeling ... the public sometimes. Like guys cruising past yelling and screaming. I know that for a while in Wellington, it went through a really bad stage of people throwing eggs from their cars, people throwing bottles. Sometimes the clients might be drunk or something, you get a little of that. A downside too is the drugs, sometimes there’s a lot of drugs around, it can be a temptation.” • However, since the change in law, the police have asked sex workers to call them if they have trouble like this.

13. Terri, transgender street worker, Christchurch “... I try to get a job and try and get off the street, but, for a transgender person, it’s hard to (a) get a job, and (b) be accepted into society for who you are, because you’re always going to be discriminated for those things.” • Shows that stigma and discrimination is still something that has to be addressed by the wider society.