A Divided Sisterhood: Support Networks of Trans Sex Workers in Urban Turkey

Abstract

This article examines how transgender individuals operating in the underground sex economy in urban Turkey form supportive relationships and mobilize against various forms of violence, given structural conditions that encourage distrust and competition and undermine collective efforts among the sex workers. I found that, despite their conditions, workers heavily relied on each other for matters ranging from small-scale interpersonal exchanges of resources to community mobilization. However, the violent and unpredictable circumstances of their lives still generated repeated conflict, making their ties precarious. The article considers the importance of fictive kinship ties in this community, and discusses the coexistence of solidarity and conflict in sex workers’ relationships.