There is very little documentation or analysis of male sex workers from different ethnic backgrounds in Canada, and almost none on Aboriginal male sex workers, even though Aboriginal men have been found to make up significant proportions of samples of sex workers, street youth and injection drug users.211

A Winnipeg street outreach project conducted in 1997 recruited a sample of 20 male sex workers, 55% of them Aboriginal. Of these 20 men, 85% had been tested for HIV antibodies, 75% had been tested for other STDs and 35% reported having had an STD. Seventy percent were, or sometimes were, worried about HIV. Thirty-five percent always used condoms at work and with partners, 50% always at work and 55% always with partners.212

Aboriginal respondents of the long interview reported less stable housing, less formal education and were younger than non-Aboriginal respondents. Aboriginal respondents were also more likely to say they felt safe when working.213

Footnotes

211. But see Rekart, M. L., Chan, S., Barnet, J., Lawrence, C. and Manzon, L., HIV and North American Aboriginal Peoples, paper presented to the VIIth International Conference on AIDS, Florence, Italy, June 1991; Sinclair, B., Aboriginal Street Youth and Sex Trade Workers Study for the Joint National Committee on Aboriginal AIDS Education and Prevention, Edmonton, Alberta Indian Health Care Commission, 1993; Read, S., DeMatteo, D., Bock, B., Coates, R., Goldberg, E., King, S., Major, C., McLaughlin, B., Millson, M. and O'Shaughnessy, M., HIV Prevalence in Toronto Street Youth, Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children, 1993. [back]

213. Ibid., p. 4.