What is(was) your professional/stage/working name?
Tara
What city(ies) do you work in now?
Santa Cruz, California
How old are you now?
32
At what age did you engage in your first professional sexual experience?
16
Describe your first professional sexual experience, including what happened, how you felt, what you were thinking, how you felt afterward.
I was 16, I wasn’t feeling at that point in my life, but I did want booze, this older guy who I knew (and hung out with) mentioned one night that he couldn’t spank his wife and I was like you can spank me, and we traded spanking for Black Velvet Whiskey. This went on for a while. I was thinking this seems like a good arrangement, he paddled me some, but I could still sit down after, so it’s all good.
At what age did you entertain the first (serious) thoughts of going into sex work?
It was about 2 years after I got involved in the Sex Worker Rights Movement, I was still identifying as an Ally, and I was doing some ’street’ outreach to the local male workers. I kept getting people interested in me, so I put my price really high for outdoor work, and after a while, some decided to pay. So now I work ‘On The Street’. But honestly it’s not like what you are picturing. I get more clients walking through the park or in the Grocery Store, or just hanging out reading a book, or whatever than I do standing on a corner. As people say hi to me, I steer it towards what I do (Sexuality for money), and shazam, I might just have myself a client.
What made you decide to enter the line of work you’re in?
I wanted Booze! . That was the answer at 16. Now the answer is a little different obviously. It’s easier to do street outreach if you are part of the community, and being a full-time+ volunteer for Sex Workers Outreach Project, I obviously have no qualms about the work.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
Meeting fellow workers, exchanging stories. My Sex Worker community is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a family.
What do you like the least about your work?
The lack of safety.
Does your family know what you do? If so, what do they think?
Most of them do, they are less worried about that, than they are me being transgendered.
How much longer do you think you’ll do what you’re doing now, and what are your plans for when you quit? If you’ve already left, what made you decide to leave and what did you decide to do for work when you left?
Uhm, I’ll stop when the clients stop paying!
If you had to go back and tell your younger self (mid to late teens) that you’d be doing what you’re doing now (assuming you’re still working in the sex industry), what do you think your younger self would say about it?
Nothing much, I’d try to come out as Transgendered quicker, and get to integrating myself as a person faster. I was 16 when I started, so I was mid to late teens already 
I guess had I been told at 16 that I was a Sex Worker, I would probably have kept doing it, but I stopped after him, and only had a few clients hit and miss between then and recently when I started back up. Think of all the money I could have made!
What advice would you give someone who was looking to get into your line of sex work?
Be Careful, be safe and get involved in your local sex worker community, if you don’t know how to locate one, try SWOP USA at 877-776-2004 or www.swopusa.org.
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I haven’t been too close to that many street workers, and I was just wondering why you chose that particular form of sex work. I have heard that it’s b/c work comes to you and you don’t have to wait, or put money into ads, etc.—but is that your motivation? What’s your reasoning? I mean, I know there’s a history of trans women being shut out of escorting, but with craigs and other sorts of indie ads, I hear that’s less the case now. Is it b/c you want more solidarity with the people you do street outreach with? The experience of street work is something I know very little about, and I’m insanely curious. I worked doing outreach with my low income rights org, but I only ever became close to one street sex worker, in the context of the dope world. She was an amazing woman, a beautiful older Uruguayan, with a gorgeous apt like a diamond in the rough in her ghetto, always reading Anna Karenina and lending me vintage clothes. She was generous and giving, & I’m not just saying that b/c she died a few years ago (from untreated hep c? an overdose? No one really knew. We offered to drive her to a hospital many times, but she was scared to expose herself that much, having warrants out on her.) Anyway, a long way of saying I didn’t learn much about street work from Monica either, b/c at that pt. she mostly had her street regulars turn to incall regulars. She’d known many of them for years and years, they seemed to really care about her. So her arrangement seemed atypical, though I did spot her one or two times waiting at a quiet shady corner reading a book, but I never thought to ask much about it, since as I said, she’d transferred mostly to incall regulars.
No judgment or escort elitism at all, just an intense desire to learn. I’ve seen and read about your activism in various venues, and am very impressed.
Hi Gillian!
Well, I don’t hustle, I’m not a hustler type. I started because I want to build a SWOP chapter locally, and I don’t really know any of the local workers, so I figured I’d start on the street, as I had some experience being homeless before, and thought maybe it would be a good place to start. I also find the people that come out of street work, or that do street work, just like in your experience are some of the most amazing people in the world. I value highly my relationships with them.
It turns out clients wanted me! They kept approaching me, and I kept rebuffing me, but then it was hard to have conversation with the workers. That and here on the street the population of active workers is very small. So I started with a really high price (for the street). Most didn’t want to pay, but eventually one did…
Now I find most of them just walking around town, when I’m out by myself. They come hit on me, and I’m like break out the cash and we can talk! My price hasn’t changed and most aren’t willing to pay that much, but every once in a while they do. It’s easy work, and I don’t have to get ready, or advertise or do anything special for it (except carry around condoms & lube). I also don’t need it as a primary source of income.
Anyways, that’s why I do it. Reading a book in public is a good way to get business I agree. I generally get one or two interests in an hour, just hanging out reading a book or playing on twitter, etc.