Milo Scanlon reflects on his experience as a trans male sex worker. He describes how he’d “only used crack a few times when I [began] letting my dealer, easily 30 years my senior, fuck me in exchange for more”:
Gender identity and sex work intersected strangely. Though my crack dealer sometimes misgendered me, he also referred to me playfully as his “boyfriend,” putting his arm around me as I sat on his lap, hoping he would shotgun me a hit. I probably “passed” as male, with my shaved head, bound chest, hairy legs, and skinny physique, leaving no body fat for feminine curves. However, naked from the waist down, letting some guy stick his dick inside me, I didn’t feel particularly masculine. I didn’t feel particularly anything, besides bored, in pain, and craving my next high.
Many trans people experience “gender dysphoria”, a feeling of disconnect or discontent between our bodies and our minds. I believe this is part of why some trans people do sex work. It’s not our body, even though we’re stuck inside of it. We don’t feel like it’s ours. So exchanging sexual access to it for money, especially if we’re struggling to pay for drugs, hormones, surgery, or even food or rent, doesn’t seem so outrageous. We’re already disconnected.
Scanlon’s post is part of The Toast‘s excellent series on trans issues.
The Dish 