In her essay “Queens in Exile, the Forgotten Ones” Sylvia Rivera recounts some of her experiences as a sex worker throughout her life. She began working on 42nd St. shortly after moving to NYC because this afforded her money for food, a group of new friends in the trade, and often a place to sleep indoors. In the early 1970’s, Sylvia did sex work to pay the rent and maintain STAR House on the LES. Given the anecdotal evidence she writes in her essay and the knowledge that she was living on East 2nd at STAR House at the time, it can be surmised that Rivera walked along Bowery and Chrystie Streets where she met johns in public. Then, she would work out of the park or in a john’s car. When times were financially secure or in bad weather, she shared a hotel room with other sex workers to perform her job. Sylvia writes,
“The street queens have always been prostitutes to survive, because some of us left home so early, or it just wasn’t feasible to be working if you wanted to wear your makeup and do your thing. Being arrested for “loitering with the intention of prostitution” became a routine, you know, cause I knew I was getting out the next day. The process is that they’ll keep you, they’ll process you, and you’ll go in front of a judge. The judge will most likely dismiss the charge cause they go by your record. In all the years I was out there hustling–and that’s between hustling and still doing politics–I was blessed because I was never arrested for prostitution. It was always “with the intention” or just standing out on a corner, loitering. So I never got arrested or did time for prostitution. The judge paid people like me no mind because I had no convictions. Cases would be thrown out so it would never be on my record. Most of the girls had records so that’s what the judge would go by. To get busted you had to do a solicitation–or they entrapped you. A lot of the girls would ask me how come I wouldn’t go with a customer, and I suppose it was because I got the wrong vibe. I believed he was the Man.
I go by what I feel. What my spirits tell me, I’m following. Every time I went with what my spirits told me (except for 2 times and both times I had to fight my way out of a situation), I was right. My instincts would say no I’d rather starve to death. And the girls wouldn’t listen. But I was lucky. The only time I did was for possession of heroin. And the cops who arrested me told me ,”We couldn’t get you one way so we figure we had to get you another way.” The cops in the area I worked at the time, which was downtown on Chrystie Street by the Bowery, were angry because they could never get me for pros.
Unfortunately many of us have to live by night because of the lack of laws or protections. A lot of transwomen are standing out on street corners or working clubs. And many of them are highly educated with college degrees. Many of us have to survive by selling our bodies. If you can’t get a job, you have to do whatever it takes to live.”
Sex workers on Bowery, 1970
