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.

[Zavien Doombringer]

Transgender women gather on K Street NW between Third and Fifth, a nightly occurrence in the area. (Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

[I_Love_My_Husband]

What are the statistics of people actually BORN that are "clearly not either" as you say????

Because in NATURE it is very very RARE indeed.

So I'm interested in your PROOF.

[Sangamon Kid]

How about Sex-of-the-week, phase-gendered, or evo-gendered.

[Vaduz]

Change last word to males not men,men do not act that way.

[ChewedGum]

But with being a prostitute, I would think that you would KNOW that the guy is going to end up finding out what is down there (unless you just do oral I guess...sheesh). This is sick, sad and it's pretty disgusting that the article is so sympathetic.

What we need now is an article talking about the poor russian roulette players who keep dying because they play a dangerous game. "No one wants to be in their shoes!" It's not much different than the game these freaks are playing.

Gum

[AD from SpringBay]

Law of the harvest still in effect - you will always reap what you sew.

[bird4four4]

because they have a sense of rightness
They are female regardless of their body
they use their own moral compass
There's not a right or wrong answer

These people are very confused, and need to seek counselling

[Sangamon Kid]

...you will always reap what you sew.

Only if you use a basting stitch.

[xzins]

That is an AWESOME comment!

Nails it!

[hellinahandcart]

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.

Oh, come on. How many "transgenders" are actual hermaphrodites? I'll bet it appears in that lifestyle as rarely as it does in the general population.

The vast majority of them are FULLY male or female. The problem is in their heads. And yes, I'm very lucky not to be as mentally ill and full of self-hatred as they.

I have never been mean to one of them, and I feel sorry for them, but not to the point of advocating that we should play along with and support their illusions, publicly fund their genital mutilations and plastic surgery, build bathrooms just for them, or enact laws that would allow them to sue me if, for example, I had refused to hire one of them to work in the boutique I once managed-- an upscale place selling lingerie to REAL women, not developmentally-arrested boyfreaks playing dress-up.

[Dante3]

Just because a man dressed up as a woman or mutilates his body does NOT make him a woman. This is nonsense. I bet you if these men lived under the Taliban where they can't dress up as sluts they would not have an urge to declare they are female.

[Gorzaloon]

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".

My folks were artists, and being brought up by them, I was always exposed to certain communities and lifestyles. So I have always had all kinds of friends.

But my friends are honest people.

To resort to "Bait and Switch" to get a date or to make a sale is something that I find repulsive to the extreme, and I cannot find a shred of compassion for people who do this, because they KNOW, better than anyone else, how the general society feels about things.

If someone is Gay, Straight, etc., fine. But leave me out of it. Just as I do not inflict me straightness and what I do at home on other people, I demand the same courtesy. And this includes Truth in Self-Labelling. If someone tells me they are transgendered, I'll just shrug, because I _don't care_. If they tell me they are one thing or another in order to date me, all bets are off. And I am sure most know this.

It is no less depicable than a garbage collector in a singles scene who claims they are a senior partner in a law firm, or a brain surgeon: It is dishonest. And sometimes, people who are deceived get angry, and everyone knows this, as well.

Anyway, that's how I see it. Your mileage may vary...

[expatguy]

bump

[biblewonk]

We sure don't have much of that in CR Ia. Thankfully.

[Sender]

Nobody would want to be in their shoes

And it's so hard to find a nice pump in size 12 triple-E.

[Cable225]

We sure don't have much of that in CR Ia. Thankfully.

That's what you think -

Transgendered prostitutes gather at the intersection of 33rd and Easter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

[biblewonk]

LOL!!!! The blacks in CR, atleast in my hood, would kill those things.

[ken5050]

Remember the "Jimmy's World?" fiasco at the WP..whena whole Pulitzer winning series odf articles was shown to be made up?..well, given the higher standards nowadays..I 'm wondering "how" the editors of the WP vetted the story....

[mountaineer]

Maybe "Tanekea" is a composite, like the "Jimmy's world" child.

[ken5050]

I read "composite"..my mind screamed..and I spewed coffee all over the keyboard....