For Transgenders, Meaner Streets; A Difficult Lifestyle Turns Deadly (WashPost sob story)

Washington Post ^ | Aug. 22, 2003 | Jose Antonion Vargas

[mountaineer]

Here she is again, strolling K Street, her black skirt very short, her black top very tight.

It's Wednesday, 11:35 p.m. "Too early to be out here," Tanekea says. Still, she stands on a corner of Third and K streets NW, just as she did Monday night, hoping to turn a trick: maybe $40 or $50 for oral sex, she says, and "more" for "something more."

With long hair, long legs and freshly shaved skin, Tanekea, 21, heads to Fifth Street, then back to Third. The sidewalks are dimly lighted. Two patrons from the nearby Louis' Rogue Go Go Lounge pass her. The clock ticks: 12:05 a.m.

A few drivers slow down and give Tanekea a second look; some shake their heads, look disgusted. Life as a prostitute is not easy. Life as a transgender prostitute is harder still, activists in the transgender community say.

This week has been an especially difficult one, with three shootings in the District of transgenders -- two of them fatal and at least one, police say, the result of a male customer angered to learn the prostitute was a transgender.

[mountaineer]

"These women are in such a difficult position. Nobody would want to be in their shoes," says Katherine Rachlin, a clinical psychologist and gender specialist in Greenwich Village. ...

"At any stage, they can be beaten up by customers, by lovers, by family members," says Rachlin. "And some of them don't feel the need to disclose because they have a sense of rightness: They are female regardless of their body and regardless of what anyone else says. I'm overgeneralizing here, but for a transgender woman to tell a man that she is a male goes against everything in yourself. So they use their own moral compass, they decide how to handle the situation. There's not a right or wrong answer here."

[goldstategop]

There is right and wrong. Perverts make me want to throw up!

[Lazamataz]

I think they should invent a third sex.

That way we REALLY can get confused.

[mountaineer]

A third sex? I thought, with all the straight, gay, bi, transgendered, transsexuals, transvestites, etc., ad nauseam, we were up to at least six or seven.

[Lazamataz]

A third sex? I thought, with all the straight, gay, bi, transgendered, transsexuals, transvestites, etc., ad nauseam, we were up to at least six or seven.

Breathes there a man with hide so tough,
Who says two sexes aren't enough?
--Samuel Hoffenstein

[Zavien Doombringer]

"These women are in such a difficult position. - You cannot change chromosomes from an xy to an xx, men are men, women are women. never the 2 will change. Nobody would want to be in their shoes," </i. - That's for sure, they need help badly says Katherine Rachlin, a clinical psychologist and gender specialist in Greenwich Village. ...

There's not a right or wrong answer here.

Yes, there is! God is the creator of absolutes. Man/Woman, Right/Wrong...To think otherwise makes a mockery out of God.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Here's an important cause: making life easier for transgender prostitutes.

Apparently men who pay for sex with streetwalkers at 3 AM get extremely angry when they learn that that the person who just performed a sex act on them was not actually a woman.

Obviosly what we need is federal funds for a sensitivity training class for johns, so that they'll be more accepting of being duped by transgender prostitutes.

[Zavien Doombringer]

That's so crazy, it just might work!

[cjshapi]

Make em wear signs that say "Shemale for Sale".

[Zavien Doombringer]

You forgot the obligatory photo!

[hellinahandcart]

They are female regardless of their body and regardless of what anyone else says.

In other words, they're completely delusional.

But now the push is on to force everyone to play "Let's Pretend" right along with these freaks. Sorry, I am not playing.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Look, I don't care how one wants to live thier life. I detest the idea of forcing me to believe that thier way of life is normal, when the general population dictates otherwise.

I say, get armed and stock up on ammunition!

[muir_redwoods]

This person's decision to support herself through criminal activity is what exposes her to physical risk. She should change that now.

I'm sure this thread will provoke a lot of chest-thumping about perverts and gays but it needs to be recognized that some people are not clearly male or female at birth. Sometimes the confusion is physical structure, sometimes it is psychological but it is real, rare but real. We are not all neatly divided into two groups. Once you actually know someone who is in this middle state and come to understand their situation you realize how lucky you are to be "normal".

[mountaineer]

The FTC should prosecute under "truth in advertising" laws. If you read the whole article, you'll see that a big issue with these freaks is whether to tell their "johns" that they're male "down there," despite their carefully coiffed hair and artfully-applied makeup. Who's shocked that they end up getting the crap beat out of them when the truth is revealed (no, I'm not advocating violence against anyone)?

[EdReform]

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[cubreporter]

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[biblewonk]

OK some of those females are really females, like the 2 on the right...aren't they?

[mountaineer]

This person's decision to support herself through criminal activity is what exposes her to physical risk.

True, and getting beaten up is only part of the risk, unless STDs have been eliminated.

[Zavien Doombringer]

according to the website, they are all men!

[mhking]

Let's see - we're talking about a two-fer: prostitution and transgenderism. Mix the two and you're a walking target.

Just damn.

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