Challenges and Benefits of Disclosure of Sex Work to Intimate Partners

ABSTRACT

Sex workers’ noncommercial intimate partnerships are marginalized on two counts – they are non-monogamous and at least one partner is in sex work, an occupation with much stigma. We asked a heterogeneous sample of Canadian sex workers (N = 218) about their decisions to reveal/not reveal their sex work to intimate partners, and the resulting challenges and benefits. A minority (58/183) of participants who had been or were currently involved in an intimate relationship kept their work secret from at least one partner or disclosed limited information, shielding them from stigma but resulting in a burden of secrecy. The majority of participants (151/183) who had been/were currently involved in an intimate relationship chose to disclose their sex work to at least one partner, which for most, had one or more negative consequences. A small group of participants related that disclosure resulted in acceptance, support, and understanding from their intimate partner. Some participants avoided the disclosure dilemma by forming intimate relationships from social connections where sex work status was already known. These relationships were generally supportive. We conclude that intimate relationships provide positive experiences for many people who sell sexual services and that these relationships could be stronger if societal stigma was reduced.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our community partners for their numerous contributions to the study and our participants who took part in the interviews. Without their narratives, this work would not have been possible. We also express gratitude to the anonymous reviewers of our article and the JSR editors.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number 115614].