transgender sex workers

human rights

This case study from 2005 by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network explores sex work related laws and argues for reform of provisions related to sex work in the Criminal Code which undermine sex workers’ ability to realise their human rights. Kenyans, drawn from the gay and lesbian community, male and female sex workers, representatives of the police force, health care providers and also legal professionals came together to mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO)in Kisumu, Kenya. The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers provides this window on the internet for all the issues affecting male, female and transgender sex workers

HIV/AIDS

A report by Crago A-L published by Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network (SWAN) of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The research presented in this report was conducted from September to December 2007 by sex workers and outreach workers from 12 NGOs in 11 countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine). The data in this report reflects the responses from interviews conducted with 218 adult male, female and transgender sex workers in these 11 countries.

community

A presentation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the Mexico IAS Conference – NACO Satellite Session August 3, 2008. It provides a thorough account of how the Foundation’s HIV prevention project in India, Avahan, mobilises communities to deliver HIV prevention and care services to female sex workers and ‘MSM’ and transgender sex workers. This community mobilization has involved addressing a range of challenges so there is much to learn from the AVAHAN initiative see their website.

peer ethnography

An article by Collumbien M, Qureshi AA, Mayhew SH, Rizvi1 N, Rabbani A, Rolfe B, Verma RK, Rehman H, Naveed-i-Rahat in Sex Transm Infect 2009;85:ii3-ii7. Objectives: To distinguish between three distinct groups of male and transgender sex workers in Pakistan and to demonstrate how members of these stigmatised groups need to be engaged in the research process to go beyond stated norms of behaviour.

corruption

Eastern Europe

Crago

HIV

DMSC

An article by Malini Sur of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Amsterdam published in the IIAS Newsletter. This paper documents action research and discussions on trafficking by Durbar, a network of 60,000 female, male and transgender sex workers in India. Durbar finds that the realities of trafficking as experienced by sex workers are very different from the myths. Durbar’s research found that while most of the sex workers they interviewed were poor and lacked options, they left home by their own choice, in search of better livelihoods, to escape violence or drudgery, or to seek love. An

BMJ

In this study in Pakistan 3350 male and transgender sex workers were surveyed, of which 2694 were included in the study. The average age of respondents was 24.1 years (SD 6.3), and the average duration of sex work was 7.5 years (SD 5.9). Respondents averaged 30.9 (SD 2.7) paid receptive anal sex acts in the month prior to their interview, while 21.5% reported using a condom during their last occurrence of paid anal sex. Of those surveyed, HIV prevalence was 5.4 per 1000; notably, no HIV-positive respondents reported any injection drug use.

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