20-year anniversary of Prostitution Law Reform Act: Two sex workers tell their stories

Talia. Photo / Supplied

On June 25, 2003, the Prostitution Reform Act passed after a long campaign by Dame Catherine Healy and sex workers’ collective NZPC. There was lively parliamentary debate including a passionate speech by the late Georgina Beyer (MNZM). Tim Barnett’s Private Members Bill passed by just one vote, making Aotearoa New Zealand the first country in the world to decriminalise sex work and changing the lives of sex workers almost overnight.

From being prosecuted to being protected, sex workers have been able to be a part of society and not apart from it. Allan Heta Cleaver (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngā Puhi), who started working before decriminalisation, and Talia, who began after the law change, talk to Cherida Fraser about their experiences and what still needs to change.

Allan Heta Cleaver

‘I’m a grandfather, I’m a partner, I’m a father, I’m parent help at school’

It was money. Money was the motivating factor. I was couch surfing with friends at the time, so I was 14. I couldn’t get the benefit, wasn’t living at home, didn’t wanna be robbing people or committing those sorts of crimes to make money. I got introduced to sex work and finally I could get paid for doing something I enjoyed.

But my concerns really were the police because street-based work was illegal. Well, first of all it was illegal to be homosexual, and then it was illegal to be sex working, and I was underage, so I had all those things. But the police were always at the fore whenever sex working. You just had to be constantly on the alert. And then there was safety, in regard to everyone else on the street too. At that time the punk rock scene was going on and it was cool, it was fun, but it could be quite dangerous too.

The vice squad were always on your case, they would have blitzes on the street, and then you had the undercover police coming in. You had to jump in the car, figure out if they were a police officer undercover, think “am I safe in this situation?” and go to some dark place. And then check if we’re somewhere that’s safe again. I’ve got lots of criminal records for prostitution, soliciting.

Not having the police now takes so much of the angst out of it all. And probably the biggest thing for me too is now I can work in the daylight hours. I don’t have to be this night owl, which I was quite happy to be when I was young but now, at 56, ha ha, I can go to bed at 10.

Allan Heta Cleaver. Photo / Supplied

If you were in a situation of being rolled or assaulted or sexually assaulted, or anything like that, in my younger days if any of those things happened, f***ing too bad, you ain’t going to report being rolled by a punter. But now knowing that you have that police back up and they will actually action it, and something will be done about it - that’s been big.

And you don’t have to be street-based. That’s huge, having these choices to be an independent worker. And then with the use of technology, you can do it all by appointments. There’s that electronic trail in terms of safety. And just the attitudes have changed, I own it more now too.

The community has been amazing, amazing both times. That first period of my life it was all the queens on the street, they were my whānau. They were the ones that showed me the ropes, showed me how to crack it and they became my whānau. They were all the Māori trans and Pasifika trans on the street. All of a sudden as a young queer Māori male in Auckland, in a predominantly Pākehā suburb, it was like, " Oh my God, I’m not the only person who’s like this!”

I kind of pulled away and kind of changed track after jail.

Then, about 11 years ago I launched a website and it just went red-hot. I had my full face on there, I had my real name on there, and my qualifications as a massage therapist. And people liked it. They liked that you weren’t this headless body, that I was upfront. And then I got involved with NZPC and that brought me back into the community again. That was really empowering to see the changes within the industry and to see the effects. That’s been really encouraging just for my self-growth. Personally, I was on that path of owning it and that really just consolidated it for me.

I just find sex workers are the realest people I know. They don’t mince about; they just say how it is. And you know we talk about all the things that everyone else is thinking about and doing … but people aren’t talking about.

The sexual act is just, kind of, a by-product, I find it’s the intimacy that the client is actually wanting. It’s that human connection and that skin-to-skin touch that you can’t get from AI, you can’t get from online. We’ve been led to believe that it’s not okay and that this is something dirty or wrong, and it’s actually not. That shame and stigma and discrimination is still huge. A lot of that could change. And the legislation around the migrants, that definitely has to change because they’re in our situation from my younger days.

This new generation of sex workers are amazing. They’re really out and proud about what they’re doing. I love seeing that. You see it more in media and court cases and that’s empowering. That’s such a big shift in our psyche and within society to see that sex workers are being honoured in that way. And that really helps to shift the public perception and the stereotypes of what a sex worker is too. You know, ‘cos there is a stereotype of what a sex worker looks like. And we’re actually from all walks of life. We are all human beings.

Sex work is like any other job, and it’s a profession. We are mothers, sisters, fathers, grandfathers – I’m a grandfather, I’m a partner, I’m a father, parent help at school. We do all that regular everyday stuff just like everybody else. Our whole world is not about sex work. For some it may be, and ka pai. But for me it’s just part of my life, and a part that allows me to do all these other parts of my life.

Talia

Talia.

‘Sex work gave me so much more time for things I want to do, like study, and to excel at it’

When I started sex work it was because I needed money really, really quickly. I was first going in there for a job interview to be the receptionist or bar person. And then they told me that they wouldn’t know if I’d have the job until a week after, and I thought, “F***! I need money now!” I always kind of wanted to dabble, I’d been for interviews to be a stripper before too.

I was 19 at the time. At that stage in my life I was into seeing and doing things that would give me an adrenalin rush. I was very much in that stage of my life. I was s***-scared of being a sex worker though. I was scared of not being good enough, I was scared no one would book me, I was scared that the girls wouldn’t be nice to me, I was scared because you have this image of being a sex worker, and it’s not really what it is, but its an image of edgy life Like, everyone smokes. I remember my first day, I met the girls, and they were all lovely and someone offered me a cigarette and I thought, “Oh, well I guess I smoke now, ha! I guess this is me now.” So I was having a smoke and I remember them calling out, “Ladies to the lounge!” and I got this sick feeling in my stomach, I was scared, scared, scared, and I walked out down the stairs and I fell.

I just remember getting the money at the end and thinking “My problems are solved!” As soon as you get money your problems just dissolve. When you don’t have money that’s the thing that you focus on; that’s your biggest problem in your life.

The girls you meet in the industry are like none other I’ve met. They just speak their mind; they’re just so in themselves, and it was really cool. It encouraged me to be more like that.

[Sex work] gave me so much more time for things I want to do, like study, and to excel at it. I have hobbies, I can be there for my whānau, I can be there for my friends when I need to. Having time to spend in nature as well - I’m able to go for walks, go to the beach, go to te moana, and enjoy all those healing aspects of that. Time to help your whole wellbeing, Te Whare Tapa Wha – tinana, hinengaro, whānau and wairua. It really helped me in all aspects of my life.

It’s helped me with my career. My social work stuff and my sex work world have come together and so I can help other sex workers, and just be there for people, be there for my community really.

Another thing that sex work has helped me with is being totally comfortable with my tinana, my body. I just didn’t think people would want to book me. But when you get booked again and again and again, it just shows like wow, you know, I’m f***ing hot s***.

Because sex workers are so stigmatised you start to think about other stigmatised groups in a certain way and you lose a lot of judgment around other groups of people. You see so much judgment in the world once you’re the one being so judged.

I know for a fact that if it was still criminalised I would have still done it, because I just needed to at the time. And I know that I would’ve been put into so many more risky situations with clients because they could have used that type of stuff against me. And with the police, that would have affected my future. I wouldn’t be able to do the career path that I’m choosing now, because I would have had a record.

But Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act needs to change, because migrant sex workers don’t have tino rangatiratanga over their own mahi and that puts them in so many different risky situations, with clients, with police. A lot of migrant sex workers won’t even go to the doctor because of fear that they’ll find out they’re a sex worker and they’ll get deported, so their whole being is at risk because of this part of the law. And that’s not fair, at all.

I’m really thankful that it is decriminalised in Aotearoa, and that I can say no to so many things. And that’s having tino rangatiratanga over my own tinana, over my body. Everyone should be able to have that in my opinion, because it’s your body. The only difference between having sex with a person and then having sex with a person for money, is the money part. So it doesn’t make sense why it would be illegal.

We’re basically all around; we’re everywhere. People don’t speak out about it because of the stigma and the shame that gets brought on to them. But we’re just normal people honestly, we’re just living our lives and we should be treated just like anyone else, we’re no different from anyone else.