Transgender sex workers in the COVID-19 era: unveiling the invisible reality

 Transgender sex workers in the COVID-19 era: unveiling the invisible reality

It's been a month since the state of emergency came to an end nationwide. In the streets of Quito, the pace of life is gradually returning to normal. However, transgender sex workers continue to be in confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them have had to adapt and resort to paid apps to continue their work.

On March 21, 2020, sex workers were forced to leave the streets and move their activity to the digital sphere. However, some of them have been left without work because they cannot afford access to these apps. According to RedTraSex (Ecuadorian Network of Sex Workers), approximately 25,000 transgender women work in the city of Quito, of which 3,500 work through paid apps and more than 21,000 continue to work on the streets and squares.

Alanís is one of the 30 sex workers in the La Mariscal neighborhood. The pandemic forced her to change her way of working. Previously, she used to work on Joaquín Pinto and Amazonas streets and says she was doing well: "It depended on the day, but I earned around $1,500 monthly, not counting my personal expenses. Now, due to the pandemic, my income has been reduced to $700 monthly, which is still very low, as I have to send a portion of that money to my family living on the coast."

Ecuador implemented a nighttime curfew as a preventive measure. According to data from the Ministry of Health, to date, more than 35,000 deaths related to the disease and 732,038 infections have been recorded.

Alanís is HIV-positive and is afraid of contracting COVID because of the consequences this disease could bring to her life. "What scares me is that the situation we are experiencing with the coronavirus is no longer the same, it completely changed our way of working, now we have to use paid apps," she says. However, Alanís, from her room, applies makeup, using a red lipstick, to go out and look for clients on the streets.

Alanís' life has undergone significant changes due to the pandemic. Now, she can barely find some clients through paid apps, she says. However, she recalls that at the beginning of the health crisis, she couldn't work on the streets and was forced to find another way to earn money, such as selling makeup items or cleaning houses.

She also recalls that at the beginning of the pandemic, her colleagues received financial assistance from the Municipality of Quito. "Few of my colleagues received food kits provided by the Municipality, but what they really gave us was not enough for even a month. We barely received three cans of tuna, four packs of cookies, and a yogurt."

The Municipality of Quito delivered 150,000 food kits to transgender sex workers in vulnerable situations at the beginning of the pandemic. However, Alanís maintains that the food kits were not enough, as many of her colleagues were left without them. "If they really wanted to help us, the Municipality would have included more products in the kits."

She also points out that the Municipality of Quito does not consider sex work a priority at the moment. "Our working environment is the streets, and the City Hall and the Metropolitan Police do not allow us to work freely, and we are often harassed by the police themselves."

Kassandra's story is similar to Alanís', except that she is not HIV-positive. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has been unable to work on the streets and had to look for other alternatives to make a living. Kassandra mentions that she dedicated herself to making paintings and cards for the Casa Mis Sueños Foundation, where she discovered her passion for painting. "Since I was a child, I remember that my father enjoyed painting, and I learned a lot from him," she says.

Kassandra adds that, thanks to the support of the Casa Mis Sueños Foundation, she has been able to cover her rent payment. "At first, I thought the foundation expected me to quit my job, but then I understood that their true purpose was to provide me with financial support, and they did."

With the meager income that sex workers obtain, she mentions that many of her colleagues face an even more difficult reality than hers. "There are several colleagues who subsist on the bare minimum; others have experienced harassment from the same police officers who evict us from the streets. However, we have tried to seek other types of financial assistance from foundations."

In Ecuador, the state of emergency still applies to sex workers. Despite their attempts to communicate with the authorities, they have not yet received a favorable response to regularize their work on the streets.