Challenging Dominant Portrayals of the Trans Sex Worker: On Gender, Violence, and Protection

Abstract

Amidst the recent amendments to federal legislation, Bill C-16, which seeks to protect transgender Canadians from discrimination, there is a need to contextualize the violence that the trans community experiences within factors other than transphobia. Although trans victims of violence and homicide are most often sex workers, and trans people are disproportionately represented among those who sell sex, trans people remain largely invisibilized in sex work research in Canada. An analysis of transphobia must be complicated by exploring the diversity and fluidity of gender presentations, social location, and labour. Results challenge dominant and polarized representations of trans women-as either stereotypically (hyper)feminine or overtly masculine, 'barely women'-by describing the variability of transfeminine expressions and their relationship to transphobia. Further, the dominant 'victim' discourse surrounding trans sex workers is countered by outlining resistance strategies and methods of ensuring personal protection. Leon Laidlaw is a PhD student in Sociology at Carleton University, where he is conducting his dissertation research on the topic of transgender prisoners. His research interests fall within the scope of Trans* studies, gender and trans theory, sex work, critical and feminist criminology, and intersectionality. Leon has headed several research projects, including his SSHRC-funded Master's thesis, which revealed the experiences of trans women in the sex industry, and an independent project analyzing how trans students navigate through institutional cisgenderism within universities. 352 MANITOBA LAW JOURNAL I VOLUME 41 ISSUE 3