Thank you, that was a wonderful COMING OUT day piece.I am a physician. I have always felt that sex work should be decriminalized. That, of course, is part of the reason it is 'closeted'. I am glad you seemed to have been safely mentored in your work.
Thank you for sharing.
STRAIGHT for EQUALITY! (S4E)

Thanks for sharing this, Tobi. Sex work issues too often gets little or no attention- which helps no one. thanks for speaking out.

Yes. I'm really glad to see this post. Thank you.

You know, my first reaction was, Damn, there she goes, going to perpetuate the stereotype that All transwomen have been hookers at sometime in their lives.

But then I thought, you know, so what. I already knew that a majority of people are idiots anyway and just want to believe anything bad about those who are different than them. They do not look at those of us who are exceptions to their fondly held prejudices. They do not look at the rank hypocricy of their discriminating against us by denying us jobs, then pointing their fingers when we are forced into doing the very things they accuse us of doing in order to survive.

Yep, we definitely have a sick society.

*claps* Bravo, Tobi! This is awesome! I'm proud of you for coming out like this!

sex work is more than prostitution.

doing it for survival is not shameful, its surviving.

transwomen -- doctors, lawyers, scientists, highly competent professionals -- are often faced with the choice of doing it.

Sorry -- screw the damn stereotype. When you have to eat, buy clothes, find housing, pay 100 bucks a month for medicine (or double that if you don't have a prescription you have to pay a doctor for), therapy session at 100 bucks a shot, and then more on top of that just to be yourself, well...

... that sex work sounds mighty tempting.

Especially after 1200 applications all being denied because you're just too damn trans for them.

working in a strip club is sex work. Topless bars are sex work. Pole dancing is sex work.

Lap dances. Private parties. etc etc.

They hire you, all you gotta do is be passable and willing.

And it pays pretty damn well.

So to anyone who thinks the stereotype is bad, well, get over it.

When you do sex work willingly -- not as survival -- you make just as much money. You can celebrate something denied to you.

think of it as your own personal pride parade, and the joke is on everyone else.

There's nothing wrong with sex work. And nothing to be ashamed of if you do.

Thanks for sharing.

And, this is something that we should be talking about.

Thanks for sharing that, and I hope things remain smooth for you. I was outted elsewhere on that recently, and know that it can get ugly sometimes.

I can especially relate to the "If I talked about the parts of..." paragraph. That's so true -- it's hard to communicate a full, encompassing view of the subject without someone turning it into something overly positive or overly negative.

Tobi,

I really enjoyed what you wrote and it is true, Sex work needs to be talked aobut more.

For as long as I have been in the TG community, I have never been involved with it myself and I know it is something that I shoud learn more about, if it leads to helping other Trans people.

I have been in a lot of groups in my time and even started a few along the way. I hae known members of thsoe groups that have done sex work, mostly out of th eneed to pay the rent and buy food. But I find that most people are very tight lipped about it and seem not to want ot discuss it very much with others who they percieve as not having done it.

Thanks again for making it a topic that exposes interest and needs to be talked about more.

survival crimes such as sex work, at the top of my agenda. Yet the LGBT rights organizations around me are barely even aware of those as LGBT issues.

Tobi, do you see this as one more way LGBT organizations marginalize the edges of our community in their efforts to convince the "mainstream" that gays and lesbians "are just like them"?

Excellent post! And thank you for sharing. You have absolutely no reason to stay silent or feel ashamed, although I fully understand that not everyone (your employers, for example) would necessarily agree.

This is an excellent, insightful, and brave post, sweetheart!

Also, I'm also writing about sex work for my Coming Out post. Stay tuned!

"I've come out as so many things over the years. Bisexual, queer, trans, kinky, poly -- not to mention the odd identity shifts through a dozen different related identities. Sometimes I'm left feeling as if there's nothing left to come out as."

You make it sound like a competition, Tobi. I don't think it matters how many identities anyone has, or how they've shifted. It should only matter that you're happy with yourself, whatever the number.

Thank you for sharing this.