Fridae

Transgender sex workers are among the most marginalized and vulnerable populations in China, according to a recent report by an NGO that focuses on health and human rights in China and Southeast Asia.

Deep-rooted social stigma and discrimination leave many transgender women who were born male ostracised from friends, families and in their native neighbourhood. This forces them into sex work and leaves them highly vulnerable to HIV and abuse from police, according to the report by Asia Catalyst.

 Several transgender sex workers told Asia Catalyst that prejudice against them were so high that they were afraid of even undertaking common everyday tasks such as using public transport or leaving their home to go shopping.

"Imagine being laughed at when using a public toilet, being evicted from your home or, even worse, dangerously self-medicating hormone use because no doctor will see you," Zheng Huang, head of AIDS organization Shanghai Xinsheng, told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Sex work is not illegal in China nor is being transgender but the country does lack non-discrimination laws or even professional medical resources for transitioning.

There is also a lack of HIV services for transgender people, leaving them highly vulnerable, the Asia Catalyst report said. Studies show that transgender sex workers are 49 times more likely to be infected with HIV than other adults, and nine times more vulnerable than female sex workers.

The report that interviewed 70 female transgender sex workers across Beijing and Shanghai found that 97 percent were forced to leave their hometown and were afraid to reveal their identity either to their families or at work.

Many said they were arrested and had experienced extortion, verbal abuse and physical violence even from police.

"If you go to the police, nothing good will come of it. It makes more sense to just suffer in silence," said one interviewee.

Chinese law only allows transgender people to change their gender on official documents if they have undergone expensive sex reassignment surgery. The Chinese government in 2009 made it illegal for minors to change their officially listed gender, stating that sexual reassignment surgery would be available to only those over the age of 20. Hence, many resort to self-medicating and dangerous transitioning practices, the report said.

Although China has a long history and cultural presence of transgenders who were often very influential and well respected, people are largely influenced by Confucianism that emphasizes the traditional binary genders.

Social anthropologists say much of today’s homophobia and transphobia in China can be traced back to this and the decades-long exposure to socialist propaganda reinforcing such gender roles and striving to eliminate difference.