Vancouver?s male sex workers fight to emerge from the shadows

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2][COLOR=#0068cf][URL]http://streetroots.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/vancouvers-male-sex-workers-fight-to-emerge-from-the-shadows/[/URL][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[B]Vancouver?s male sex workers fight to emerge from the shadows[/B]

[B]BY STEVE SMYSNUIK, STREET NEWS SERVICE
August 5, 2009 · [/B]

[URL="http://streetroots.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/sexslavebw.jpg"][COLOR=#0068cf][IMG]http://streetroots.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/sexslavebw.jpg?w=200&h=300[/IMG][/COLOR][/URL]From the July 24, edition of Street Roots.
Addicted and high on drugs, Idris Hudson followed the man offering to pay for sex up to his hotel room. Hudson depended on the money he earned hustling, so he had to take his chances with customers. Unbeknownst to him, a group of five or six other men were waiting for him in the hotel room. Hudson?s not sure of the exact number, but he knows they beat him up. They raped him. They tortured him and kicked him out.
Hudson didn?t have a home, or any friends, for that matter. He wandered to his temporary shelter?under a tree near the Burrard Street Bridge ? and waited for the drugs to wear off. He cried a lot, too, wondering how he ever got to that point.
A lot has changed since that tragic day in September 2007. Hudson exited the sex trade, clean and sober. When we meet, he?s well dressed and sips a fruit smoothie at Big News Coffee on Granville Street. He speaks candidly about his 15 years in the sex trade, which came very close to killing him.
?My life consisted of nothing,? says the 32-year-old. ?I was just wandering around, existing ? barely.?
Male sex trade workers face high rates of violence, usually by customers conflicted with their own sexuality. Sue McIntyre?s seminal 2005 study of the male sex trade, ?Under the Radar: The Sexual Exploitation of Young Men,? sheds light on the experiences of 157 male sex workers across B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Her study revealed that more than 80 percent had experienced some form of violence during their time in the trade. Over 90 percent identified their work as ?dangerous,? something Hudson?s experience attests to.
According to Hudson, violence often occurs when customers are unsure of themselves or angry about cheating on their spouses. This aggression is then taken out on the escort.
?This is something that?s rarely discussed,? he says. ?It happens to a lot of guys. I would say in the male trade more than the female trade, but it?s not reported. No man is ever going to walk into a police station and say, ?I was raped, I was willingly raped because I was picked up by a bad date.??
Hudson chalks this up to shame, which he feels is near universal in the male sex trade. ?To say that they?re overpowered by somebody, or raped, is not something that most males would dare to talk about,? he says. ?It takes a lot of people down really quickly. You want to die after something like that.?
Because so little is known about the male sex trade, people are often unaware of the dangers faced by male sex trade workers.
McIntyre says that homophobia and ignorance are inextricably linked to this ? people are often stunned to learn that men work in the sex trade at all. The term ?male prostitute? subverts the image of alpha masculinity that society has endorsed for so long and forces people to reassess their notions of sexuality and gender roles ? something McIntyre says makes most people uncomfortable. Sex work already is an uncomfortable issue for most, but when mixed with society?s homophobic tendencies, not many will address it. This displaces the men even further.
[I][B]Tragically Typical[/B][/I]
There?s no singular reason why men enter the sex trade, but there certainly are constants. According to McIntyre?s British Columbia findings, 95 per cent of male sex workers in the province have a history of running away. Close to 70 per cent had a history, prior to working the street, of being sexually violated.
Nearly three-quarters have witnessed or experienced physical violence in the home while growing up. Over half had involvement in child welfare services. Forty per cent are of Aboriginal heritage.
?Under the Radar? also found that close to three-quarters of those that enter the sex trade are younger than 18 (a much higher percentage than women), making Hudson?s case unfortunately typical.
Hudson left his home of Cranbrook at age 15 because the small B.C. town wasn?t accepting of young gay males. He fled with only a backpack and went to Calgary, where he knew he could explore his sexuality without fear. Unable to get into the gay clubs, he would wait outside with kids in the same situation.
Older men would pay them for sex. Hudson said it was a logical choice?he was homeless and broke. It seemed romantic too?his first trick was also the first guy he ever kissed.
?And it was easy cash,? he says. ?For an irresponsible teenager, it was amazing.?
His boyish facial features, slim figure and olive skin quickly earned Hudson a steady stream of male customers, who eventually became his only lasting relationships toward the end of his 15 years in the trade. Because he had little education and ?virtually no work ethic,? the sex trade became his occupation. He couldn?t fathom selling retail for minimum wage when he would make $200 to $300 per customer, and he?d see maybe three, four or five customers per night.
?Now that I?ve grown, I?ve realized at what cost that comes,? he says.
[I][B]
Hustle to Survive[/B][/I]
Hudson ended up in the Downtown Eastside for about six months, addicted to cocaine, booze and assorted party drugs before he was assaulted. He says by that point, he was on the verge of disappearing into the back alleys when HUSTLE found him.
HUSTLE, the first peer support organization in Canada designed specifically to assist males in the sex trade, helped Hudson exit the trade and get off drugs one year later. He exited on his first try because he was motivated, but at least half the men McIntyre interviewed for ?Under the Radar? were in and out of the trade at least once. Hudson himself has known a lot of people who never made it out ? they disappear or they die.
Matthew Taylor and Don Presland, both former sex workers, saw the need for more support in the male sex trade, and together they used their knowledge of the street to form HUSTLE as a means to support men who are ready to exit, and teach them the skills necessary to lead a ?regular? life.
HUSTLE is on the street three nights a week, offering peer support to the men working in Downtown South, known as Boys Town. Located in the heart of Yaletown, it was the city?s one-time warehouse district and a fair ground for male sex work, but has since been gentrified into the new kingdom of swank apartments and chic lounges?and is no longer too tolerant of prostitution.
Taylor says the men are hard to find because most don?t want to be found. A vast majority of male sex workers utilize the Internet to find customers, but there are still a number working the streets. Those numbers can?t be quantified because no comprehensive studies have been done. It?s taken Taylor and his outreach workers about a year to establish relationships and build the trust of this group of men, often very young, who feel they?ve fallen by society?s wayside.
?Traditionally, sex work and the support of sex work has been primarily a female issue,? says Taylor. ?There has to be a conscious shift in society to even understand or even acknowledge the fact that men are involved in sex work.?
City council has addressed sex work issues through granting programs, and HUSTLE has received some of that money through the Vancouver Fund, but according to former city councilor Kim Capri, ?There has been no attention from council to the issue of male sex workers.?
While Capri says sex work is an ?incredible issue,? council hasn?t been sure how to identify it from a policy perspective.
Female sex work hasn?t even been officially raised in council, so of course very little thought ? and indeed, priority ? has been given to the men.
?It would be really hard for me to say why (that is),? said Capri. ?I think that because there is such a predominance of violence towards women who are involved in prostitution, maybe that?s why it?s more on our radar. There are a lot of women who are dying out there, who are being victimized. That?s not to say that?s not the case for men, it?s just not something that I?m as aware of.?
Her attitude and knowledge mirrors that of the city she once counciled, and indeed North America at large, where there are virtually no services designed specifically for male sex trade workers. According to Taylor, Canadian sex-worker advocacy groups are using European models of support, which are far more progressive than North American models. On this side of the Atlantic, men don?t get the same airtime.
HUSTLE has met and supported a ?good number? of survival sex workers in the downtown area, but Taylor doubts they?ve even touched the majority. But at least their name is out there.
At least the outreach phone rings. That?s a major success, considering that most of these men have severe trust issues. Taylor says he can build their trust because they see a man who?s lived what they?re living and has come out the other end, alive and well.
?I?m not giving up?
Taylor has seen some positive change on the streets since HUSTLE began in 2007. There?s now a trustworthy group of individuals that the guys can come to?when and if they want to.
HUSTLE recently launched a support group titled HUSTLE ?N? FLOW at the Three Bridges Community Health Center every Wednesday. It?s the first of its kind in Vancouver ?a drop-in center designed specifically for the men, to target their needs and begin developing the skills necessary to exit the trade if and when they?re ready.
?There?s been a bit of growth in that the guys and the youth are beginning to feel that they?re not alone, that people care and that they?re not forgotten or cast-offs or add-ons.
?We?re really just trying to challenge some of the myths that are out there,? said Taylor. ?A lot of the male sex trade has just not been discussed. The women?s issues and all of that have certainly been taken a hard look at and males are just up and coming.?
Hudson meanwhile is doing well, though he?s hit a few rough patches along the way. He?s relapsed twice since getting sober ? the most recent occasion led to his eviction from an abstinence-based residence. Right now he?s couch surfing, but he has managed to hold down his management job at a popular Vancouver restaurant. He?s sober. He?s not sure what the future will bring, but he?s hopeful.
?I could either give up and throw myself a pity party or I could stay healthy, stay off the streets and hold on to all those things I?ve fought for. I?ve learned some hard lessons, but I?m not giving up."