Sex Work and Criminalization

Sex work is an important topic for LGBTQ studies, in part due to overlapping concerns of sex worker and LGBTQ communities. Similar to sex workers, many LGBTQ individuals are and have been marginalized, denied rights, and/or criminalized for living outside of heteronormative sexuality. Many scholars have also described sex work itself as a queer act given that sex work occurs outside of married, monogamous, unpaid, reproductive sexual unions. Sex work also often involves sexual contact between members of the same sex, such as a male worker with a male client or two or more female workers having same-sex sexual interactions in front of clients. Further, LGBTQ individuals engage in sex work for a variety of reasons. As a result of these factors—in combination with growing ...