User:Ksantos803/sandbox

In the early twentieth century, young men were involved in sex work more than adult men. In the 1910s, male prostitution was more about men who were identified as fairies since they took on a more effeminate role that the male clientele were seeking. The fairies, or pansies, took on ascribed feminine mannerisms and would be referred to as inverts for inverting their sex as well as regarded as a third sex that did not fit the binary gender system. Fairies did not base their identity on their sexuality, since many male sex workers used this identity, but rather based it on their expressed gender. Not all fairies were sex workers, but many male sex workers took on the identity for their clients. The clients would take on the dominant role which was made a lot easier with the providers of the sex work being youth in the 1920s. There were also clients who preferred punks or wolves who were boys or men that took on ascribed masculine personas which was liked by some men like seamen and prisoners.

There were young men whom got involved in sex work out of desperation to be able to have income since many were from the poor and/or working classes. However, society understood that all male prostitution could be explained that heterosexual men of low socioeconomic backgrounds were the ones who engaged in sex work, willing to be with other men, all for the purpose of gaining a financial foothold rather than the men engaging in prostitution because they were homosexual. Some men did turn to prostitution in hopes to gain wealth but there were others who did sex work simply because they chose to do so. Pimps were prominent on the scene of selling off young men to older men who were looking for young, same-sex relationships. Sometimes, the parents of the youth were aware of their children’s actions and would support it since they would receive benefits from the older men who were paying to have sex with their sons. Other times, the young men would keep it hidden and use it as a means to be able to earn a lot of money in a quick way and would claim they only did so they don’t steal or fall into line with other youth who fall into the criminal life due to poverty.

During the mid-twentieth century, male prostitution was undergoing a revolution as to what exactly the clients were looking for as well as people equating male sex work with homosexuality. Many clients who identified as straight were struggling with the onslaught of criticism that the public had towards male sex work. Male sex work was garnering attention from the public who frowned upon it, so the clientele started to shift slightly since people started to associate male sex work more with homosexuality. The clients who sought out male sex workers identified as homosexual. The clients also looked for “real men” by the 1930s, in which they wanted men to be hypermasculine rather than be fairies and young men. However, after the 1930s, due to more public scrutiny, male prostitution suffered since it drove away men from engaging in the work due to the work being associated with homosexuality. This caused an identity crisis among men who engaged in sex work since they increasingly became aware that they themselves may be homosexual, but they still needed money. The public was adamant that such behavior was unacceptable in society which wounded the male sex work community.

Male sex work had gone so far underground that it became known, or rather believed, that all male prostitutes were gay. In the 1970s, the Gay Rights movement came be, which allowed male prostitutes to have a voice. Men engaged in sex work would go to gay bars because the bars were the only places men were able to find clients. However, it became a bit of an issue to be part of the gay community considering that even the gay community thought male sex workers were also gay which perpetuated the stigma that male prostitutes were gay. Even then many people did not see male sex work as legitimate work, but rather something that men turn towards as a last resort to earn money. Male prostitutes tried to change the narrative that their sex work was just simply work, but it did not come across nor was it really accepted by society. Gay men were harassed by police officers for soliciting sex and were often caught by police officers who wore plain clothes were monitoring gay bars. Police would often conduct raids on the gay bars and arrest people inside. Male prostitutes frequented the bars since they would find many clients inside but with the raids they had to go into hiding so they would not be harassed for their work in commercialized sex since they relied on making a living selling their bodies.

While male sex workers were combating police enforcement of sodomy laws, particularly more so in the 1970s, they attempted to fight for their rights through the judicial system. Male prostitutes faced an ongoing battle with legislatures attempting to pass laws that criminalized male prostitution. However, most of the anti-prostitution laws were more heavily enforced on female prostitutes rather than male. It was not until 1996 in Romer v. Evans that the court stated that moral disapproval of male prostitution was not enough to constitute a statute.

During the 1980s HIV/AIDS epidemic, there was an increase in regulation among sex workers. On June 5, 1981, the CDC released the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) in which it claimed that there was an infectious illness that was prevalent amongst gay men which was pneumocystis pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma. It was seen that the immunosuppression illnesses were also found in clusters of men in other major cities in the country like New York City. On June 16, 1981, the National Institute of Health admitted a 35-year old gay man to their Clinical Center. He was the first person with AIDS to ever be admitted at NIH. Because multiple gay men were the first to have been diagnosed with AIDS, the syndrome was strongly associated with the homosexual male. In 1982, terms such as "gay cancer," "gay men's pneumonia," and the "gay plague" began circulating after the illness was penned the gay-related immune deficiency (GRID).