Having the right to a career path like anyone else seems a small thing to ask. In Phnom Penh, however, transgender sex worker Sam Sela, from Women’s Network for Unity (WNU), the 6,400-member sex workers' union in Cambodia, has been rejected for jobs even in low-wage restaurants and garment factories.
Being instantly recognizable as transgender means she is denied work even in this "live and let live" Buddhist society advertised in tourist brochures as gay- and lesbian-friendly. Sela explains, “I joined the WNU union because I faced so much discrimination from my family, friends and society that I could not get regular work.”
As well as transgender and male sex workers, WNU is made up of women who work in hostess bars, karaoke clubs or massage parlours and do freelance sex work. The union has 5,000 members in the capital Phnom Penh and another 1,400 throughout the country.
In Cambodia, the 2008 Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation and the severe stigma attached to doing adult sex work make it almost impossible for sex workers to access justice, healthcare and social security systems. In response, WNU advocates for legal and human rights, as well as safer working conditions, including condom use.
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