<story><title>Canada&apos;s top court has overturned all restrictions on prostitution</title><url>http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/12/canada-lifts-all-restrictions-prostitution-2013122015318412319.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sergiotapia</author><text>Pardon my ignorance, but when you say trans are you saying &amp;quot;looks like a man and dresses like a woman&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;genetically a man, but looks and acts like a woman (with or without sex reassignment surgery)&amp;quot;?&lt;p&gt;If it&amp;#x27;s the former, I can understand the reactions of people, it just looks weird; of course people are going to have apprehensions of hiring someone who does dresses like the opposite sex for a public facing job.</text></item><item><author>marquis</author><text>We can&amp;#x27;t ignore the (sad and backwards) social stigma that trans-women face, where a waitressing job, or any public-facing job, is difficult to apply and be accepted for.</text></item><item><author>sergiotapia</author><text>There is a middle ground. It&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;either I work using my brain, or I whore myself out.&amp;quot; Many women are waitresses, shopping mall sweepers, store attendants, cashiers, you name it.</text></item><item><author>undoware</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m heartened by the response to this, both on Hacker News and elsewhere.&lt;p&gt;Being a trans woman in IT is a bit weird -- because I can do incredible things with my mind, I&amp;#x27;m off the hook my sisters are on, that makes them have to hook.&lt;p&gt;Several roommates ago, I literally came home and found that my (also trans) roommate, who in addition to being trans was also dealing with immigration and had recently lost her job and had begun turning tricks at home. Had I not come home early from the university, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have known.&lt;p&gt;And I&amp;#x27;ve always hated the Canadian legal system for making me kick her out. Because just being her roommate, under the previous legislation, would have classified as &amp;#x27;living off the avails&amp;#x27; and would have made me legally indistinguishable from her pimp. Just for being her roommate.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s the sort of pauperizing, soul-crushing bullshit that you never, ever forget.&lt;p&gt;Also, I&amp;#x27;m a big fan of Katrina Pacey, the lawyer mentioned in the article. I&amp;#x27;ve worked with her a few times on activist stuff (I got into sex worker advocacy after my up-close-and-personal. They can&amp;#x27;t do it themselves, they go to prison when they try. Well, before today. Go Katrina Pacey! Go Canadian legal system!)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>undoware</author><text>Uh, I mean that I&amp;#x27;m MTF. Full transition, including FFS, SRS, HRT, and a bunch of other TLAs. So is&amp;#x2F;was my roommate. That was ironically part of her problem too: most johns who want a trans woman are &lt;i&gt;actually&lt;/i&gt; after a so-called &amp;#x27;shemale&amp;#x27; (a no-op transsexual; i.e. someone who gets everything done but keeps the original plumbing.)&lt;p&gt;Thanks for asking the question respectfully, I really do like explaining things to curious (although I caution you I&amp;#x27;m almost alone in this; please don&amp;#x27;t make a habit of unsolicited questions to trans people! But for better or worse, I love to talk about myself, so let&amp;#x27;s use it to spread some understanding and peace for the holidays!)</text></comment>
<story><title>Canada&apos;s top court has overturned all restrictions on prostitution</title><url>http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/12/canada-lifts-all-restrictions-prostitution-2013122015318412319.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sergiotapia</author><text>Pardon my ignorance, but when you say trans are you saying &amp;quot;looks like a man and dresses like a woman&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;genetically a man, but looks and acts like a woman (with or without sex reassignment surgery)&amp;quot;?&lt;p&gt;If it&amp;#x27;s the former, I can understand the reactions of people, it just looks weird; of course people are going to have apprehensions of hiring someone who does dresses like the opposite sex for a public facing job.</text></item><item><author>marquis</author><text>We can&amp;#x27;t ignore the (sad and backwards) social stigma that trans-women face, where a waitressing job, or any public-facing job, is difficult to apply and be accepted for.</text></item><item><author>sergiotapia</author><text>There is a middle ground. It&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;either I work using my brain, or I whore myself out.&amp;quot; Many women are waitresses, shopping mall sweepers, store attendants, cashiers, you name it.</text></item><item><author>undoware</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m heartened by the response to this, both on Hacker News and elsewhere.&lt;p&gt;Being a trans woman in IT is a bit weird -- because I can do incredible things with my mind, I&amp;#x27;m off the hook my sisters are on, that makes them have to hook.&lt;p&gt;Several roommates ago, I literally came home and found that my (also trans) roommate, who in addition to being trans was also dealing with immigration and had recently lost her job and had begun turning tricks at home. Had I not come home early from the university, I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have known.&lt;p&gt;And I&amp;#x27;ve always hated the Canadian legal system for making me kick her out. Because just being her roommate, under the previous legislation, would have classified as &amp;#x27;living off the avails&amp;#x27; and would have made me legally indistinguishable from her pimp. Just for being her roommate.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s the sort of pauperizing, soul-crushing bullshit that you never, ever forget.&lt;p&gt;Also, I&amp;#x27;m a big fan of Katrina Pacey, the lawyer mentioned in the article. I&amp;#x27;ve worked with her a few times on activist stuff (I got into sex worker advocacy after my up-close-and-personal. They can&amp;#x27;t do it themselves, they go to prison when they try. Well, before today. Go Katrina Pacey! Go Canadian legal system!)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rosser</author><text>No, a trans person is a person with a body that is one gender, but who identifies as the other gender (assuming binary genders, which is an issue the broader trans community would probably dispute with some vehemence).&lt;p&gt;Some trans people only think it, some take supplementary sex hormones (typically testosterone for FTM; and one or more of the female hormones, and possibly also anti-androgens for MTF), and some have surgery to give them parts that match their identities.&lt;p&gt;You&amp;#x27;re thinking of cross-dressers, which community has some overlap with the trans world, but is, in general, a different thing. Cross-dressing is generally also a &lt;i&gt;kink&lt;/i&gt;, while being trans is an issue of &lt;i&gt;identity&lt;/i&gt;.</text></comment>