Outdoor Brothel Culture: The Un/Making of a Transsexual Stroll in Vancouver's West End, 1975–1984

Abstract

In the mid-1970s, following a series of police raids on prostitution inside downtown nightclubs, a community of approximately 200 sex workers moved into Vancouver's West End neighborhood, where a small stroll had operated since the early 1970s. This paper examines the contributions made by three male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals of color to the culture of on-street prostitution in the West End. The trans women's stories address themes of fashion, working conditions, money, community formation, violence, and resistance to well-organized anti-prostitution forces. These recollections enable me to bridge and enrich trans history and prostitution history – two fields of inquiry that have under-represented the participation of trans women in the sex industry across the urban West. Acutely familiar with the hazards inherent in a criminalized, stigmatized trade, trans sex workers in the West End manufactured efficacious strategies of harm reduction, income generation, safety planning, and community building. Eschewing the label of “victim”, they leveraged their physical size and style, charisma, contempt towards pimps, earning capacity, and seniority as the first workers on the stroll to assume leadership within the broader constituency of “hookers on Davie Street”. I discover that their short-lived outdoor brothel culture offered only a temporary bulwark against the inevitability of eviction via legal injunction in July 1984, and the subsequent rise in lethal violence against all prostitutes in Vancouver, including MTF transsexuals.

The impact of construction and gentrification on an outdoor trans sex work environment: Violence, displacement and policing

“…The collision of gentrification and sex work has a long history in Vancouver, as we have documented, as well as in other cities (Hubbard and Sanders, 2003; Sanders, 2004b). Like participants in our study, trans sex workers in Ross’ studies recounted that working conditions in the West End in the 1970s and early 1980s were safer because sex workers were included in the community and were working closely with each other; however this changed dramatically with the 1984 legal injunction (Hamilton, 2014; Ross, 2012). Gentrification promotes middle-class lifestyles as well as middle-class values that regard sex work as inappropriate, which leads to policy changes and/or community campaigns to remove sex work(ers) from the neighbourhood (Lyons et al, 2015).…”

“…The police closure of two nightclubs in the mid-1970s resulted in outdoor sex work becoming more visible in the Downtown and West End (gay village) areas of the city (Lowman, 1986; Ross, 2012). During the gentrification of the West End neighbourhood, a community organization called Concerned Residents of the West End (CROWE), comprising many white gay men, launched a series of successful campaigns (e.g.…”

“…In 1984 sex workers were banned from the West End by a legal injunction issued by Justice McEachern and consequently sex workers were evicted from the area (Ross and Sullivan, 2012), despite many trans sex workers living in the neighbourhood (Hamilton, 2014). The following year the federal government enacted harsher punishments for sex work in the Criminal Code, (Ross, 2012, 2010). As a result, trans sex workers were forced into the East End of downtown, and over time, the vast majority of trans sex workers were displaced to the DTES because of neighbourhood harassment, policing, and physical changes (e.g.…”

“…Historically, trans sex workers have been pushed out of newly gentrified areas of Vancouver by neighbourhood organizations and police, including when they were relocated to the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood in the 1980s and 1990s. The police closure of two nightclubs in the mid-1970s resulted in outdoor sex work becoming more visible in the Downtown and West End (gay village) areas of the city (Lowman, 1986; Ross, 2012). During the gentrification of the West End neighbourhood, a community organization called Concerned Residents of the West End (CROWE), comprising many white gay men, launched a series of successful campaigns (e.g.…”

Negotiating Violence in the Context of Transphobia and Criminalization

“…Police and sex work laws have historically not protected trans sex workers (Ross, 2012; Sausa, et al, 2007), including in our study setting where the police infamously ignored calls from the community to investigate missing women and sex workers (Oppal, 2012). This historical context contributes to trans sex workers’ reluctance to report violence or to engage with police (Namaste, 2000; Rhodes, et al, 2008; Stotzer, 2009) as demonstrated in our study.…”