Pandemic Rendering the Transgender People More Vulnerable, as If It Was Not Already Enough: A Qualitative Exploration from Odisha, India

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted people's livelihoods worldwide to an unprecedented magnitude, the most affected being the socially and economically disadvantaged and marginalized communities, including the transgender people that constitute one of the most vulnerable sections that are often subjected to discriminated in various sectors such as education, health, housing, and livelihood opportunities. The present study attempts to offer insights into the impact of the pandemic on the livelihood of transgender people in India, given that the pandemic adversely affected their primary sources of livelihood, such as begging, sex-work, singing, and dancing, due mainly to the restrictive measures: lockdown, shutdown, social/physical distancing, etc., imposed by government authorities to curb the spread of the virus, in turn depriving them of their livelihood choices and rendering them even more vulnerable. This study draws from twelve transgender respondents in the city of Bhubaneswar, India recruited through the snowball method and uses thematic analysis of qualitative data obtained through telephonic interviews. The study finds that the pandemic-induced measures have negatively affected the lives and livelihood of transgender people during this time of crisis. Despite the government's sustained efforts in providing temporary livelihood options and monetary supports during the crisis, the transgender people continued to remain marginalized. Approaches to making them self-sufficient over a longer term and empowering them financially would have been of more significant impact.

Editorial Comment: Specters, States, and Solidarities

Granted that only one essay specifically invokes the pandemic;still, I am struck by the fact that almost all of them focus on textual analysis and only occasionally invoke performance. [...]to the spectacular nature of direct violence, neoliberalism tends to manifest itself as a more hidden, "ordinary" violence, which our field continues to theorize as a political and aesthetic force.1 Analola Santana's article "Neoliberal Transactions: Staging Prostitution in the Mexican Nation" expands the conversation through a cogent analysis of how neoliberal violence is performed in Mexican drama;as in so much of the Global South, the damage of late capitalism is exacerbated by the forces of Western imperialism. Yet, as Sullivan also demonstrates, Suzanne's ferocious commitment to writing speaks to Kennedy's own determination to find a way to "be free of air," even "while finding no other source of breath and life." [...]he considers how plays such as American Son by Christopher Demos-Brown enact conservative ideas of reform, or what he calls reformance, which reiterate "a structure of repetition in which some change, or difference, is proposed and/or implemented without transforming the foundational structure."

Love of Empire by Dissociations

In the past two years, as the whole world has been deeply mired in the COVID-19 pandemic, we may have observed neoliberal capitalism's crisis of care: exposed and exacerbated by the global pandemic, made explicit alongside examples such as the collapsing of health systems, the shortage of care labor and overwork of nurses, the serious outbreaks in aged care facilities, the increased burden of domestic labor and care work due to school closures, and the worldwide rise of domestic abuse. Feminist calls for economic independence for (mostly middle-class) women to work for equal pay as men certainly do not resolve the care problem but, instead, further obscure colonial divisions of labor under which the racialized labor mostly from formerly colonized nations is made to fill up the gap.2 I consider the discursive formations of love as a point of departure to review how the global pandemic bears on our everyday practices of intimacy. The historical effects of racialized displacement can be seen as consisting of three sets of often-dissociated social relations during the pandemic crisis: archetypical angel-heroines in white (nurses), angels in the house (housewife and mother), and fallen angels (prostitutes).3 During the pandemic, many of us constantly experience fears about the health systems being overwhelmed, even while we express growing appreciation for the essential care provided by health workers. The virus eventually spread to the teahouses of Taipei's Wanhua neighborhood—also known as an adult entertainment red-light district in Taipei. Since Wanhua was reported as the center of a major cluster, the workers in the sexual venues, in particular, became a singularized target of public criticism.

On the Streets: Deprivation, risk, and communities of care in pandemic times

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, public concerns about 'vulnerable people in street situation' have grown in South American countries. These concerns focus on the risk of sexual violence, exploitation, and human trafficking faced by migrants and women in the sex sector. This article examines these public concerns and the discourses of risk that structure them, taking Ecuador and the border province of El Oro as a case study. It analyses how irregularised migrants and women offering sexual and erotic services talk about 'risk' and 'exploitation', and how they respond to crisis, controls, and restrictions by becoming involved in risky activities and building communities of care. These communities are solidarity alliances that connect and offer mutual support to people confronting deprivation and violence. They are not restricted to the household or the domestic sphere;rather, they constitute different forms of 'family' and 'home' building. The article is based on a participatory research in El Oro, a place with a long history of human trafficking that has not been recognised or studied.

‘Getting a grip’? Phenomenological insights into handling work place in London’s Soho

How are working lives shaped by the demands and expectations associated with a particular workplace? And how are work identities enacted to demonstrate a capacity to cope with place-based demands, expectations and associations? Drawing on insights from phenomenological perspectives on space, place and situated experience, particularly Merleau-Ponty's concept of 'grip', and interview data drawn from longitudinal research with men and women working in London's Soho, this article shows how working lives and identities are situated within, and enacted through, practices that involve developing and demonstrating a capacity for place handling. The analysis shows how this is negotiated by those working in iconic locales in which their working lives and identities are shaped by meanings that are both evolving and enduring, and that require them to get and maintain a demonstrable grip on the setting in which they work. In contributing to a growing interest in understanding working lives as situated phenomena, the article challenges the idea that work is increasingly place-less, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the digitalization of work accelerated by it, emphasizing how where work takes place continues to matter to how it is enacted and experienced.

“We Knew No One Else Had Our Back except Us”: Recommendations for Creating an Accountability Care Framework with Sex Workers in Eastern Canada

The authors report findings from a 15-month project that focused on the experiences of sex workers who live and work in an Eastern Canadian province. As part of a larger multi-phased study, 15 adults who identified as women, transgender, or non-binary, and received money or goods for sexual services, participated in photo-elicitation interviews. Drawing on a critical framing analysis, findings indicated supports—as identified and experienced by sex workers—encompassed three categories of care: self, community, and collective. These categories are described, with a particular focus on the latter two. Continuing with the care-based framework, recommendations to structure interventions draw on the role of accountability care in identifying how best to operationalize policies that promote health, well-being, and dignity of Canadian sex workers. The paper begins with a brief overview of the Canadian context and the role of supports. It follows with a discussion on the materials and methods and the results. It concludes with recommendations, limitations, and future considerations.

Q&A: India’s sex workers battle stigma

Speed read Sex workers in Kolkata lacking health services amid social stigma Indian doctor uses popular TV show to combat prejudices Virtual platforms helped her connect with sex workers during COVID-19 [NEW DELHI] When Indian doctor Agnimita Giri Sarkar started raising awareness of cancer and HIV among sex workers on the streets of Kolkata, she quickly became aware of the social stigma they face. [...]stigma surrounding the disease, coupled with the stigma associated with sex work itself, means that many fail to receive the health advice and care they need, says Sarkar, a paediatrician at the Institute of Child Health in Kolkata. [...]to mitigate social ostracism, I try to invite sex workers to perform dance [and] drama in medical programmes, for instance, at a breast cancer survivors’ conference.

REGULATE OR ABOLISH SEX WORK? FEMINIST APPROACHES TO THE SEX INDUSTRY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

This chapter develops analytical and comparative approaches on the advance of the sexual exploitation industry in Eurozone countries, addressing specific regulations and norms on what is called sex work (when regulated by the state) or prostitution (countries with abolitionist normative frameworks). Indeed, in scenarios of economic and health recession due to Covid-19, this issue is controversial and of urgency in the public agenda due to the scarcity of statistical records that can account for the impact of the sexual exploitation market on women and feminized bodies and in relation to gender equality and equity indexes, as well as public policies. As a working assumption, it is proposed that there is a “sociological erasure” on the impact of the sexual exploitation industry on populations of high social vulnerability. Methodologically, on the one hand, a comparative analysis of indicators relevant to gender equality and human rights is developed, using second-order data to compare European countries with antagonistic legal regulations on the sex market. On the other hand, the perceptions, discourses and representations of experts in the field and key informants related to the sex market are analyzed. Finally, it is concluded that coercive prostitution affects feminized corporalities, especially migrant and poor women. Therefore, prostitution should be considered a violation of human rights and should be evidenced as an emergent of gender violence. Information and analysis regarding this industry are required to know how to intervene and contribute to reach new levels of gender equality, and to provide timely assistance to those who need it, according to the objectives for the Eurozone established in agreement with UNICEF’s global Goal 5. © Emerald Group Holdings Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Female Migrant Street Prostitution during COVID-19 in Milan. A Qualitative Study on How Sex Workers Coped with the Challenges of the Pandemic

The article presents the outcome of a qualitative study on female migrant sex workers involved in street prostitution during the first two waves of COVID-19 in Italy, by focusing on their responses to the challenges posed by the pandemic in terms of economic strain and health hazards. The study, carried out from January 2020 to January 2021, has focused on the street sex market, given that this sector was particularly affected by mobility restrictions adopted during the pandemic, and on the city of Milan since it is one of the main hubs of human trafficking in Europe and one of the main sex markets in Italy, as well as one of the Italian cities most heavily hit by COVID-19. According to the findings of the empirical research - based on interviews and participant observation -, migrant women's experiences in the sex market during the pandemic show two concomitant elements, one referring to agency and the other to exploitation. This outcome has led us to put forward a third balanced theoretical perspective, between the two views polarizing the debate on sex trafficking - namely the "victimization approach" and the "critical approach" - that is grounded on the conceptual tool "layers of vulnerability" discussed in the bioethics debate.

Prostituição e o COVID-19: repercussão na vida das profissionais do sexo

A profissão dita como a mais antiga do mundo, vive ainda, grandes estigmas, preconceitos e desigualdades, fazendo-se necessárias análises mais profundas sobre essa situação. Este artigo tem como objetivo problematizar a realidade da prostituição, assim como, as vivências estabelecidas nesse contexto, como: a inserção na prostituição, identidade e representação social, família, saúde, relação com cliente, aspectos pessoais acerca da profissão, regulamentação da profissão e violências sofridas. Para, além disso, temos o recorte dessa análise para os percalços ocorridos às mulheres inseridas nessa categoria profissional na pandemia do COVID-19. Como metodologia, utilizamos de entrevistas semi-estruturadas para coleta de dados no bairro Jardim Itatinga, Campinas/São Paulo – Brasil, posteriormente, como análise dos dados os categorizamos para maior aprofundamento, e por fim, através de boletins, notícias e documentos online ampliamos a discussão da execução do trabalho sexual durante a crise sanitária.Alternate :160 Revista CTS, vol. 17, nº 49, marzo de 2022 (159-177) Considerada la profesión más antigua del mundo, la prostitución sigue viviendo grandes estigmas, prejuicios y desigualdades, por lo que es necesario un análisis más profundo de su situación. Este artículo tiene como objetivo discutir la realidad de la prostitución, así como experiencias establecidas en este contexto como: inserción en la prostitución, identidad y representación social, familia, salud, relación con el cliente, aspectos personales de la profesión, regulación del profesión y violencia sufrida. El análisis está enfocado en los percances sufridos por prostitutas durante la pandemia del COVID-19. Como metodología, fueron realizadas entrevistas semiestructuradas para la recolección de datos en el barrio Jardim Itatinga, Campinas/San Pablo, Brasil. Luego de categorizar la información reunida, ampliamos la discusión sobre la ejecución del trabajo sexual durante la pandemia a través de boletines, noticias y documentos en línea.Alternate :Considered the oldest profession in the world, prostitution is still experiencing great stigmas, prejudices and inequalities. This article aims to discuss its reality, as well as the experiences established in this context, such as: insertion in prostitution, social identity and representation, family, health, relationship with the client, personal aspects about the profession, regulation and violence suffered. The analysis is focused on the mishaps that occurred to female prostitutes during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted semi-structured interviews for data collection in Jardim Itatinga, Campinas/São Paulo, Brazil. After the information was categorized to allow a deeper analysis, the discussion about prostitution during the pandemic was expanded with the help of bulletins, news and online documents.

Exposing Gender Inequalities: Impacts of Covid-19 on Aotearoa ǀ New Zealand Employment

This article outlines how the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates economic and social gender inequalities in Aotearoa I New Zealand. While this crisis highlights the central part played by women in the economy, the gender impacts of the pandemic are visible in connection to a decrease in job security and financial safety for female workers;to a rise in the duplication of paid and unpaid work;to an increase violence in and outside of homes;a heightened risk exposure to the virus and worse health outcomes. Not all women are equally positioned in this crisis, women of Māori and Pacific descent are disproportionately feeling the effects of the pandemic. The two-prong, governments recovery plan, which only partially ensures a fair and equal economic rebuild, is critically assessed. While the economic response fails to take a systematic gender approach, scope for challenging traditional gender assumptions is met head-on in relation to policy on violence against women. The article considers flexible working options and focuses on options for reframing employment law in a post-pandemic environment with a view to achieve and deliver equality between men and women through an intersectional lens.

Online Child Sexual Exploitation in the Philippines: Moving beyond the current discourse and approach

OCSE refers to situations where a child 'takes part in a sexual activity in exchange for something (... or ... the promise of such), from a third party, the perpetrator, or by the child him/herself' and where the sexually exploitative images and materials at some stage involve the online environment, whether being 'produced, bought, sold, possessed, distributed, or transmitted.'1 OCSE is highly interconnected with other forms of child sexual exploitation, including sexual exploitation that occurs whilst the victim is online or the grooming of children online for either online or offline sexual exploitation.2 The Philippines is often referred to as a 'hot spot' for OCSE. Since the first convictions involving OCSE in 2011,3 the number of reported cases has been rising each year, with more than 800,000 tips of possible OCSE from the Philippines in 2019.4 During the COVID-19 pandemic, tips are reported to have increased by 264 per cent.5 Widespread access to low-cost internet and mobile devices together with high levels of English proficiency and an established commercial sex industry are the most immediate explanations for the prevalence of OCSE in the country.6 Whilst the relevant stakeholders concur that more action is needed to tackle the issue, there is disagreement regarding how the problem is represented and addressed. High profile awareness and online safety campaigns portray OCSE as being perpetrated against young children by adults, usually within the same household.7 However, existing research and the experience of many community-based practitioners suggest that self-generated sexual content/material by children is more common and becoming normalised in many communities with friends and young relatives 'coaching' their peers in how to produce sellable images and access paying customers via anonymous payment systems without an adult 'facilitator'.8 Research suggests a range of motivations for children to engage in this behaviour, including to meet their families' financial needs;to have their own money to purchase clothes, gadgets, or drugs and alcohol;or in the hope of forming relationships with foreign men online.9 The sole study on the impact of OCSE in the Philippines suggests higher levels of post-traumatic stress, lower self-esteem, severe educational delays, and an increased risk of entering prostitution among victims.10 However, the long-term effects of OCSE, whether facilitated by an adult or involving self-generated material, on the mental, physical, sexual, and social wellbeing of children is unknown and research is greatly needed to address this gap. Whilst national legislation in theory supports this approach, multiple factors such as fragmentation of services, lack of sustained funding, and poor cooperation at the local government level limit programme reach and implementation.18 Progress is also disrupted by incongruous government policies and laws, including those that require a guardian's consent for children and youths under 18 years to access SRH services, but hold that children as young 12 can provide sexual consent and be held criminally liable at the age of 15.19 A large body of evidence confirms that comprehensive SRH education can have a significant impact on SRH outcomes.20 Nascent research also suggests that this impact can be extended to related issues and, thus, experts recommend the inclusion of topics such as internet sexuality and gender-based violence.21 However, to be effective, SRH programmes must be holistic and intensive, using activity-based and learner-centred educational methodologies. Working together to end the sexual exploitation of children online, 2018, pp. 5-9 and 14, https://wwwweprotect.org/wp-content/ uploads/Global-Threat-Assessment-2018-EN.pdf. 7 M Abad, 'PH Government, Private Sector Launch Joint Campaign Against Online Child Sexual Abuse', Rappler, 22 October 2019, https://wwwrappler.com/moveph/ saferkidsph-campaign-against-online-child-sexual-abuse;No Author, 'New Campaign SaferKidsPH to Raise Awareness on Online Sexual Exploitation of Children', UNICEF, 22 October 2019, https://wwwunicef.org/philippines/press-releases/ new-campaign-saferkidsph-raise-awareness-online-sexual-exploitation-children. 8 Plan International, Children and the Sex Trade in the Digital Age: A study on the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Metro Manila, The Girls Advocacy Alliance, 2018, p. 29, https://plan-international.org/publications/children-and-sex-trade-digital-age;Internet Watch Foundation, Trends in Online Child Sexual Exploitation: Examining the distribution of captures of live-streamed child sexual abuse, IWF, Cambridge, 2018, p. 11, https: //wwwiwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/inline-files/Distribution%20of%20 Captures%20of%20Live-streamed%20Child%20Sexual%20Abuse%20FINAL.pdf;National Center for Missing and Exploitation Children (NCMEC), The Online Enticement of Children: An in-depth analysis of CyberTipline reports, 2017, retrieved 24 November 2020, https://wwwmissingkids.org/content/dam/missingkids/pdfs/ncmec-analysis/ Online%20Enticement%20Pre-Travel.pdf;Terre Des Hommes Netherlands, p. 23.

THE IMPACT OF THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT) ON MINORS AND CHILDREN THROUGH ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION

Pornography has become a major problem of today cyberspace, extended through the Internet at the planetary scale. The phenomenon has deep social and economic implications affecting a huge number of children under the age of eighteen who are subjects of sexual abuse and exploitation. Child pornography generally refers to images or films depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child. Because child pornography involves children, the test of acceptability is much stricter than for regular pornography, as consent cannot be given either by the child or guardian. Child welfare professionals are worried that paedophiles will use the third-generation mobile technology to access child sex sites, take pictures of sex with children and trade in images of abuse.

Bookshelf 2021

Covid-19 has continued to affect book reviewing this year, as reviewers whom we had to remind wrote us back saying everything from "I'm stuck in Dakar" or "I crushed my right index finger in an anchor mishap two months ago [and] ... typing was problematic for a number of weeks" to "in the midst of the pandemic I fell and broke my leg in two places," not to mention people's frequent child-care/remote learning challenges (for some books, we had to identify and ask as many as nine potential reviewers before one agreed) or the difficulties of getting books from publishers to reviewers in pandemic-bombed Brazil. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2020, cloth US$ 79.00) Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life andLegacy of a Cuban Revolutionary, by Tiffany A. Sippial (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020, paper US$29.95) Staging Discomfort: Performance and Queerness in Contemporary Cuba, by Bretton White (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2020, cloth US$ 85.00) The World That Fear Made: Slave Revolts and Conspiracy Scares in Early America, by Jason T. Sharples (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020, cloth US$ 45.00) Afrocubanas: History, Thought, and Cultural Practices, edited by Devyn Spence Benson & Daisy Rubiera Castillo (Lanham MD: Monster in the Middle (New York: Riverhead Books [Penguin/Random House], 2021, cloth US$27.00), is the second novel by Virgin Islands-born Tiphanie Yanique-in "Bookshelf 2014," we called her first one, the multiple prize-winning Land of Love and Drowning, "a gem," and this one is as well. In the fictional town of Pleasantview, we meet Syrian shopkeepers, Muslimeen converts, Pentecostal churchgoers, street gang members, Hindus with roadside fruit and vegetable stands, sex workers trafficked from Venezuela and Colombia, lawyers, politicians, and police, as well as myriads of Black women, but the focus, always, is on family relations-misogyny, poverty, violence, and the allure and perils of migration (to New York, Barbados ...)

Book Review Essay: Legalizing Sex: Sexual Minorities, AIDS, and Citizenship in India 1

"High-risk groups are identifying other members in the community, mapping patterns of sexual behavior, working out strategies to reach out to other peers, creating strategies for the regular monitoring of condom use, and ensuring regular checkups at STI clinics". All the welfare schemes are for the mainstream thus they are going through hardships. "Since they can be viewed as potential bearers of the virus, stigma and transphobia has taken an upward surge". Recently I came across news of how India's first transgender professor from West Bengal was denied a Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) Covid test.

Dancers win at work: unionization and Nowak v Chandler Bars Group Ltd

In the United Kingdom, United Sex Workers is organizing as the sex workers' branch of the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW). Sex workers have located dancer unionization and labour rights within a political framework and set of demands relating to socially reproductive labour and decriminalization of all forms of sex work. Their efforts have led to an Employment Tribunal decision that dancers fall within the definition of “worker” found in various UK labour laws. At the same time, the broad perspective and demands of the sex-worker rights movement expose the limits of worker status, and the gains made through unionization have, at least at this time, been eclipsed by COVID-19.

Privacy, Porn, and Gay Sex Parties: The Carceral Governance of Homosexuality in Indonesia

This article examines how the recent Indonesian Pornography Law renders homosexuality and/or homosexual acts intelligible to the Indonesia state and society by institutionalising them as criminal offences. By drawing on insights from queer studies and exploring the cases of gay arrests in the country, I demonstrate that certain same-sex sexual acts are more susceptible to criminalisation, especially when those acts blur the distinction between public and private. The deployment of the Pornography Law against gay people, together with the anti-LGBT media environment in the country, has carried consequences for LGBT individuals, particularly gay people, by making them visible, legible, and thus subject to state surveillance and control.

Paying for Sex During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Experiences of Israeli Men.

INTRODUCTION: This qualitative study explored the experiences of men who pay women for sex (MWPWS) during the COVID-19 pandemic, which poses radical and profound challenges to various aspects of people's intimate, sexual, and financial experiences. METHODS: The study was based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 10 Israeli MWPWS who regularly visit various prostitution venues. The interviews were conducted between April and July 2020, between the first and the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Israel. RESULTS: The findings focus on four major aspects of the participants' experiences: the participants' inability to pay for sex, the difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic to participants' sex-for-pay experiences, the positive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their sex-for-pay experiences, and the insignificance of COVID-19 pandemic to their sex-for-pay experiences. CONCLUSIONS: I conclude that COVID-19 pandemic triggers various sexual, emotional, and gendered experiences for MWPWS. Accordingly, MWPWS may reevaluate their engagement in sex-for-pay, and their experiences of it may be reshaped in light of the pandemic. I discuss the findings' contribution to sexuality and masculinity studies, and the methodological possibilities that they raise for qualitative scholars studying social phenomena during the COVID-19 pandemic. POLICY IMPLICATIONS: The study highlights the significance of developing ad hoc prostitution policy that supports the individuals involved in the sex industry-both MWPWS and the women who are paid for sex-during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, it suggests that prostitution policy should address the diverse experiences of MWPWS, beyond viewing them as merely offenders who should be punished, or re-educated.