Indoor sex work doesn't take place only in brothels. It is also, as Forbes (1977) described, a routine that for many decades has been very much a part of the game:

Male prostitutes interviewed admit frequenting gay clubs, hotel bars, steam baths and body rub parlours to meet prospective tricks. While some attempt to find a "sugar daddy" or "mark" to move in with, and provide sexual services in exchange for room and board, others just make enough money to live from day to day.169

In Canada, visible street sex work is believed to account for only up to 20% of all sex work activity.170 Not surprisingly, public concern regarding sex work is generally limited to visible street work. Public opinion polls conducted by the Fraser Committee (1985) found that 45% of Canadians thought "prostitution in private" was acceptable, but only 11% were prepared to tolerate street sex work.171

As is the case in any of the less visible venues for sex work, finding information on indoor male sex work is difficult. This section focuses on what little writing there is on one area of indoor male sex work: the indoor work of agency escorts, massage parlour attendants and independent advertisers.

Risks to health and safety, including risk of HIV infection, vary with the type of sex worker: street prostitutes, escorts, or prostitutes who work indoors. ... Street prostitutes have tended to be overrepresented in studies of sex workers, so that one must be cautious in generalizing on the basis of such studies about the risks to the health of other types of sex workers.172

Escorts and independent advertisers

Pick up almost any Canadian newspaper, phonebook or entertainment weekly and you will find advertisements for escort service agencies and independent advertisers.173 These services are a major form of indoor sex work in Canada.

It is important to keep in mind that in Canada,

street prostitution is illegal, whereas escort services are not -- a discriminatory feature of the law that has an adverse effect on poorer sex workers.174

Because these agencies do not explicitly advertise themselves as prostitution services, it can be hard to prove their responsibility when sex is exchanged for money ... women and men working on their own or for agencies are contacted by telephones and pagers and meet prospective clients in their own quarters or those chosen by the client.175

Increasingly, male sex work in Canadian cities is moving indoors. An unprecedented number of sex workers are using telephones and private residences to facilitate their work, as well as working as licensed escorts and masseurs, often in order to provide a safer environment for themselves and their clients.176

Today, sex work in smaller Canadian cities is often hidden, if not invisible. A recent national working group found that nearly all sex work in smaller Canadian cities was conducted indoors by escorts or independent advertisers.177

The effect of this, in terms of HIV, is that health departments and outreach agencies may not know where or how to provide services to sex workers, and sex workers and escort agencies may not want to disclose the true extent of their activities for fear of the police and the courts.

For example, one community-based HIV prevention outreach program in Toronto, using current and former sex workers as outreach workers, found it difficult to access escort agencies and bawdy-houses, particularly those that provided the services of sex workers from specific ethnic backgrounds. Parts of the indoor industry maintain strict control, being more interested in profit-making than in health.178

Massage parlours

We know that massage parlours exist in many Canadian cities. We also know that they are venues where forms of sex work occur. Though almost no research has been done to investigate the HIV-related issues of men who sell sex through massage parlours, or the issues of their clients, one small study was unearthed.

In 1995, the Asian Community AIDS Service (Toronto) conducted a needs assessment of Asian sex workers. Six were males between the ages of 22 to 30 who worked in a massage parlour. They found that

The environment is clean and there is a high degree of cohesion among the female and male sex workers/masseurs. ... There is a set pricing for the massage services and the owners take 50% of the total. If sexual services are provided, the entire income (known as the tip) belongs to the sex worker. ... The issue of condoms on the premises could be improved. Owners have asked their workers not to have condoms with them for fear of legal incrimination. This request by the owners facilitates an unsafe sex environment. The participants have stated that sex does [take place] on the premises; and they know that some workers do practise unsafe sex in exchange for higher monetary return. Some workers do go against their employers' request of not having condoms by hiding the condoms on them during their shift. At times clients do bring their own condoms with them on the premises; the respondents stated [that] there are clients who really know the hazards of unprotected sex.179

Footnotes

169. Forbes, G. A., Street Prostitution in Vancouver's West End, prepared for the Vancouver Police Board and Vancouver City Council, Vancouver, Vancouver Police Department, 1977, p. 3. [back]

171. Achilles, R., The Regulation of Prostitution, background paper presented to the City of Toronto Board of Health, Toronto, City of Toronto Public Health Department, April 24, 1995.

172. Jackson, L. and Highcrest, A., "Female Prostitutes in North America: What Are Their Risks of HIV Infection?" in Sherr, L., Hankins, C. and Bennett, L., eds., AIDS as a Gender Issue: Psychosocial Perspectives, London, Taylor and Francis, 1996, cited in de Bruyn, T., HIV/AIDS and Discrimination: A Discussion Paper, Joint Project on Legal and Ethical Issues Raised by HIV/AIDS, Montreal, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and Ottawa, Canadian AIDS Society, 1998, p. 62.

173. Allman, D., Personal Classified Advertisements of Men Seeking Sex With Men: Trends in Representations of Risk Behaviour, 1980-1994, paper presented to the Fourth Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS Research, Toronto, June 1994.

174. Jackson, L. and Highcrest, A., "Female Prostitutes in North America: What Are Their Risks of HIV Infection?" in Sherr, L., Hankins, C. and Bennett, L., eds., AIDS as a Gender Issue: Psychosocial Perspectives, London, Taylor and Francis, 1996, cited in de Bruyn, T., HIV/AIDS and Discrimination: A Discussion Paper, Joint Project on Legal and Ethical Issues Raised by HIV/AIDS, Montreal, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and Ottawa, Canadian AIDS Society, 1998, p. 63.

175. Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Prostitution, Results of the National Consultation on Prostitution in Selected Jurisdictions, Interim Report, Ottawa, Department of Justice, 1995b, p. 6.

176. Highcrest, A., At Home on the Stroll: My Twenty Years as a Prostitute in Canada, Toronto, Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.

177. Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group on Prostitution, Results of the National Consultation on Prostitution in Selected Jurisdictions, Interim Report, Ottawa, Department of Justice, 1995b.

178. Jackson, L., Highcrest, A. and Coates, R., "Varied Potential Risks of HIV Infection Among Prostitutes," Social Science and Medicine, 1992, 35, 3, p. 283, citing a conversation between Alexandra Highcrest and Toronto sex workers.

179. Wong, S. K. H., Needs Assessment of Asian Sex Trade Workers in Toronto, Final Report, Toronto, Asian Community AIDS Services, 1995, pp. 17-18.