Disclaimer: All names used in this story are not real names.
Sex workers are losing money because of the coronavirus. Advocates say that means they’re more likely to face exploitation.
Sex workers are facing dire financial and personal circumstances as fear of the coronavirus extends into every corner of life, with some under pressure to work in increasingly risky conditions.
Escorts, strippers, dominatrixes, and an intimacy coach told Monday Times Uganda they had lost thousands of dollars due to canceled conferences, travel restrictions, and clients’ fears of being in public spaces.
Porn performers have been advised to stockpile video content to release in the event that the industry shuts down, but the most vulnerable sex workers face the threat of exploitation and homelessness.
As public health departments recommend “social distancing,” the sex workers whom Monday Times Uganda spoke to explained how they’re planning to continue to support themselves while trying to protect their health in the midst of a global pandemic.
Some said they are turning to online work like sexting and video calls, putting wish lists of food and other goods on Jumia, asking questions about their clients’ travel history, and relying on trusted clients to make ends meet.
But, like the millions of hotel and food service workers in Uganda with bills and no paid leave, some sex workers said they would simply have to keep working.
“I have a house and a car. I have a mouth to feed. I don’t have time for a stupid virus to stop my money flow,” said Jane, a stripper in Kampala who asked to be identified by her stage name for privacy reasons.
In Uganda where schools, bars and some hotels have closed, sex workers said they’ve already seen a dramatic drop in business.
Scovia, a dominatrix in the city, said she’s been losing at least Ush 500,000 a week since concerns about the virus hit, and that the three women she shares a workspace with have faced the same.
“We would usually do, say, three clients per day in that space,” she said while asking to be identified by her professional pseudonym to maintain her privacy.
“This last weekend we would usually have been booked, but it was open. So that’s pretty bad,” she said.
Betty, who works as a stripper in Kampala, said she has had nights where she went home empty-handed, and that she barely made rent last month.
“I made the last two dollars I needed on the fifth of the month,” she said, adding that that had never happened before.
She said that concerns about the virus had affected the service industry broadly in the city, but that she felt sex workers had been hit particularly hard.
However, she said that she had learned to save for tough times, but would still probably have to put her taxes on her credit card. “In sex work you have to save and be ready, because when you need money is when you start letting your safety practices slip,” she said.
Betty, who was traveling from Europe when she first spoke to Monday Times Uganda, said she had changed her return flight after President Museveni announced travel restrictions, and that she would self-quarantine at home. She said she had made a quarantine wish list on Jumia and said some clients have been sending her supplies.
“These sweeties bought me like 12lbs of dried cherries, 2lbs of dried blueberries, and 25lbs of rice so far!” she said.
Intimacy coach and sex educator Rose said she has been forced to cancel her big private events like naked yoga, play parties — where partygoers can have sex or watch others in a safe space with sex-positive ground rules.
Rose said clients would normally complain about event cancellations, but that she hadn’t heard from anyone this time around. She’s not so upset about it herself — “I don’t want to kiss anybody,” she told this website.
Jade, an escort in Muyenga, said she was continuing to see clients, but was nervous because she has a few clients who travel regularly to Uganda from other countries like USA, UK, South Africa.
She said she has gotten more serious about asking clients to wash before she sees them.
“Most people are showered or they come in and shower, but I don’t always ask them to go wash their hands right when they come in,” said Jade. But since the spread of the virus, she said she’s been stricter. “I’m like, ‘stay at the sink for 30 seconds.’ Some people turn the water on, and it’s often 5 seconds, and I’m like, ‘you didn’t wash your hands,’” she said.
Rose, the sex educator, and other sex workers told Monday Times Uganda that they’re relying on online sessions with clients to keep some money coming in while they wait for the spread of the virus to slow down and public fear to subside.
“I work with people on intimacy and relating in trauma. I teach somatic processing,” said Rose, referring to an alternative therapy for people dealing with post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI). “So I’m focusing on that area. It makes me a lot less money,” she said.
Madame Irene, a dominatrix based in Bukoto, said she’s actually seeing some clients more regularly through online sessions, which include tasks and instructions built around what a client likes. “A couple of regulars … have requested more video sessions than I would normally see them face to face,” she said. “It’s interesting.”
Despite the video calls, she said the situation has declined rapidly and she’s still losing money overall. “I’ve definitely lost some money. I wouldn’t say it’s catastrophic numbers yet, but enough to feel the impact. It’s made me feel that I need to boost my video and clips production so that I can continue to make money.”
A medical personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that although there’s still a lot we don’t know about the coronavirus, we do know that it primarily spreads through droplets transmitted into the air by coughing and sneezing.
He said kissing posed a particular risk. “You are at risk of exposure to COVID from each person you’re having that type of contact with. And whilst we think people are most infectious when they have symptoms — the symptoms again, this is an important message to get out, specifically, cough and fever — we honestly don’t really sure about the days before symptoms,” he said.
Sex workers face different degrees of risk depending on what they’re doing, said a clinical director who provides clinical and social services to sex workers in Kampala.
“People who are doing street-based sex work, may not be able to stop doing sex work to survive,” he said.
For people who trade sex to survive and other sex workers who continue to see people in person, he recommends a discussion with clients ahead of time to ask the same questions about recent travel and other risk factors that doctors may be asking. He also emphasized that handwashing was an important step for everyone.
But Jaqueline, the sex worker and activist, said that for the most vulnerable sex workers that advice missed the point. “Without any adequate connection to government services to help people stay alive — literally stay alive — people don’t have any other option but to continue to do what they’ve always done,” she said.
Ruth Morgan, who advocates for sex worker rights around the world, argued that the health crisis was also exacerbated by criminalization of sex work, which limits sex workers’ ability to access health care and other social services.
“For me, this just amplifies the vulnerabilities [that result from] criminalization and the refusal of many governments to recognize sex workers as part of the labor force in the country,” said Morgan, adding that it “somehow makes people feel we have less rights to the social protection systems that others have.”
