Sex Workers, Fem Queens, and Cross-Dressers: Differential Marginalizations and HIV Vulnerabilities Among Three Ethnocultural Male-to-Female Transgender Communities in New York City

Abstract

This article describes 3 distinct ethnocultural male-to-female transgender communities in New York City: the low-income African American/Black and Latina(o) House Ball community; low-income, often undocumented immigrant Asian sex workers; and middle-class White cross-dressers. These communities are highly socially isolated from each other and are more connected to their ethnocultural contexts than to an abstract and shared transgender identity. Whereas previous research either has viewed male-to-female transgender people as one monolithic group or has separated them into abstract racial categories unconnected to their communities and lifestyles, this article positions them within specific social networks, cultures, neighborhoods, and lifestyles. With regard to HIV vulnerabilities, violence, and rape, House Ball community members seemed to engage in the riskiest form of survival sex work, whereas Asian sex workers seemed to engage in moderate-risk survival sex work. White cross-dressers seemed to engage in very low-risk recreational sex work.

Figure 1

Participant-observation was conducted in areas marked in red in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan boroughs of New York City.* * Figure is courtesy of William Bowen. Further reproduction is prohibited without written permission from William A. Bowen, California Geographic Survey.

Figure 2

Scene from inside a Ball in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, during a vogueing competition.* * All photos in this article were taken by the first author, Sel Julian Hwahng.

Figure 3

Exterior shot of a Ball at a club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Note the mural on exterior wall that reflects African American/Black collective community spirit.

Figure 4

First of three MTF members of the House Ball community at a Ball.** ** All photographic subjects featured in close-ups in this article signed written consent forms allowing the use of their images.

Figure 5

Second of three MTF members of the House Ball community at a Ball.

Figure 6

Third of three MTF members of the House Ball community at a Ball.

Figure 7

Asian MTF sex worker solicitation bar in Manhattan. Note the sleek, modernist aesthetic. Asian MTF sex work bars were usually designed in this modernist style or decorated with kitschy Asian ornamentation.

Figure 8

Group of three Asian MTF people.

Figure 9

White cross-dressers' bar in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan. Note the European-Parisian aesthetic of this bar situated in an economically privileged district.

Figure 10

Group of four White cross-dressers.

Figure 11

Differences between two types of sex work among male-to-female transgender communities in New York City.