Good Girls Do It Too

Michelle & Georgina

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This story began a short time ago. A young unemployed lady decided to work for a madam. She discovered her first date was a city businessman and was set up by someone who paid attractive women to attend parties and spend evenings out with well-to-do men looking for excitement and romance. It's lucrative, offers flexible hours and has been described as fun. It's how these two transsexuals justify working as sex workers and talk about their exclusive experiences.

Michelle 27, Double Bay

"I was doing my final school year at Sydney Technical College at the age of 19. I wanted to go to university but I was poor, Austudy wasn't enough. I was broke and very hungry but because I was studying, I didn't have the time to take on regular work. It came to an absolute head one day and I thought, "enough is enough." This is my story!

I am a transsexual and I knew people who had been sex workers and successful. They were intelligent, presentable, respectable and could afford lots of treats. I decided to join them.

Firstly, I was recommended and worked in a brothel four nights a week from 8pm to 4am with an average of 10 clients each shift and studied during the day from 9.30am to 5pm. I did it for about 4 years and earned about $2,000 a week. I loved the work but I was exhausted. I probably didn't do as well at Tech as I could have though.

It put a lot of stress on me. I knew if anyone found out, like friends or my boyfriend, it would change their perception of me. I compartmentalized my life.

I made lots of money but I couldn't keep any of it because I couldn't reconcile having so much money and being a student. If I'd bought bonds, my boyfriend would have wanted to know how. So a lot of money got spent on romantic moments and memories, with nothing to show for it.

When I eventually got to university I started doing escort work and thought I might get spotted by someone who knew me or that a client would walk in and I would know them. It did happen. He didn't know where to look or what to do. I wore wigs and different make-up and dressed in clothes I don't normally wear.

I still haven't finished my university course. I had this idea about what university would do for me but it's what you put into it that matters and I didn't put in much!

I'm now working for the Sex Workers' Outreach Project which offers information and support to sex workers in the industry

I got out at 25. I thought I was too old and didn't have the earning capacity of a younger person. I've been left with very expensive tastes but I don't regret it at all. I do miss the excitement, fun and the men. But, I'm happy, now!

Georgina, 36, Darlinghurst

There's a certain type of monetary gain being a sex worker that makes life just that little bit easier. Because I worked in the entertainment industry before, the sex industry has always been there for me. But I've never looked at it as a career.

Of course you do question your own morality but I just wanted some financial security and put some bikkies in the bank while I was still young enough to be working. It paid for a good lifestyle, took away the struggle and I enjoyed my work.

When you're working, whether it's in parlours, privately or on the streets, you adopt a certain persona to get through. I'm a transsexual but it's like being schizophrenic ... you have different roles for different occasions.

I made a lot of money doing it but it was exhausting the mental fatigue. I was always very evasive with friends about where I was and I always set up a legitimate excuse. I was in disguise while I was working. I virtually was a different person.

But the chance of being discovered is a terror you always live with. I did have a lot of near misses. Your heart skips a few beats when it happens. But if someone asks you what you're doing there, you can always ask them the same thing.

I did it for ten years and I don't regret it. I did it for a purpose and I achieved that purpose. I took the rewards and left. I was lucky enough to be in that position. Now I am really enjoying my sleep.

If I meet a partner later on, I don't know if I would tell him. My past isn't going to change, the justification has already happened. If it was necessary to tell him, I would. If it wasn't, I don't see any reason to rock the boat. And I am quite a moral person, I would expect monogamy.

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