Prologue

Prostitution is big business in Canada.[1]

Hustlers are leaders in the fight against AIDS. We not only work safe, we often teach clients about condoms and how to use them properly.[2]

Recent public concern about STDs has probably been influenced by accounts in the media of homosexual men who have contracted AIDS. ... Our understanding of its causes and the manner in which it is passed from one person to another is incomplete. Nevertheless, it appears that high levels of sexual activity with a variety of partners [are] a greater factor in the spread of the disease than is prostitution ... at this time any notion that prostitutes play a decisive role in the spread of the disease is unsubstantiated.[3]

Both male and female sex workers have reported having regular HIV tests, and both have prevalence rates that are not significantly higher than [those of] the general Canadian population.[4]

The biggest barrier to prostitutes accessing AIDS prevention information is the criminalization of our work. The bawdy-house laws can get us for working inside and the soliciting laws can get us for working on the street. It's difficult for us to stand up and tell you what we need, or to come together and do it ourselves, when we are always trying to stay one step ahead of the police. You don't get much useful AIDS prevention information in prison.[5]

All people need the right to explore and challenge attitudes about sex. Young people need the right to represent themselves and their sexuality in any way they choose to as long as they are not breaking the law. Youth have a right to explicit safe sex information about themselves which could potentially save their lives. And street youth need to be able to broaden their choices so that they can truly choose without the threat of police harassment and prosecution which only limits their future choices and guarantees that they stay on the street.[6]

Because we are prostitutes, we are or can be at high risk for sexually transmitted diseases, but I want you to know that most of us practise proper safe sex, probably more than the general public.[7]

One of the things that amazed me was just how diverse the backgrounds of the boys were. I remember a blind boy with his guide dog. I remember a deaf boy from Italy who came here because the school for the deaf here is world renowned. I remember an Asian boy, Bentley and a couple of other black boys, several native boys, Latin American immigrants (including one who married a friend and stayed in the country). Other boys with university educations like me, a boy from Florida, boys from Halifax and Vancouver working for the summer. ... I remember guys as old as 35 and met boys as young as 14. ... I used to joke about the fact that at a time when "employment equity" was the PC buzzword, we were one of the few workplaces that really had it.[8]

There is considerable variation in the practices of sex workers and the conditions affecting their health and safety. Studies of HIV infection among sex workers often draw on samples that are not necessarily representative of all types of sex workers. As a result it is difficult to generalize about the risks to the health of sex workers, including the risk of HIV infection, from one locale to another.[9]