Indigenous transmasculine Australians and sex work

In this article, we analyse and discuss how Indigenous transmasculine sex workers negotiate and construct their identities while navigating their financial and social needs. We explore the narratives of Jeremy and JJ, two Indigenous transmasculine Australians who are self-identifying sex workers with different experiences of identity, body and space. Drawing on Indigenous Standpoint Theory and trans geographies we detail the participants’ tactics for managing their sexuality, gender and emotion. Further, we examine how transmasculine Indigenous Australians resist as well as rework racism and gender discrimination through sex work, expanding notions of sex workers from victims engaged in practices of survival to people working from a position of autonomy and agency. In doing so, it complicates concepts of race, gender and sexuality, contributing narratives from Indigenous Standpoints which enrich the trans geography literature.