
Some of my kinks, because I was raised in a devoutly Catholic, then I'm not gonna say another religion, it was a protestant faith that was specifically anti-LGBT. The major thing about me is I have, I had, a lot of guilt over my sexual orientation. It was not something, at that point in my life, I felt like I need to follow up on. … Maybe if I hire the guy he would be more attracted, the money would make it more of a distant thing. It was just a thing like "I wanna get this done." I had had sex but I didn't enjoy it. There wasn't a lot of gay men around, and so it was sort of a straight practicality at the age of 20, because I was like, "I wanna get this done." By the way I didn't lose my virginity to an escort. I didn't come out to my parents until I was 19, specifically because I didn't want to be put it into reparative therapy.Īnd so, because of that it's always been a little bit hard for me to find partners specifically growing up where I was, which was a rural, Midwest place. I didn't come out to myself until I was like 17. Tom: It took me a very, very long time to come out to anyone. Why did you turn to escorts at such a young age? My first hiring experience was when I was 20. Tom: Consistently for about a little bit over a year-about a year and six months. Reason: How long have you been using escorts? Any other names mentioned in the interview have also been changed to protect their identities. Tom is 31, lives in a major metropolitan area, and has an advanced education. To protect this customer's identity, we will be referring to him simply as Tom (not his real name). In a 40-minute phone interview he spoke about his experiences with escorts and why his difficult personal background made them necessary. Nevertheless, one customer of contacted Reason, interested in talking about why he turns to escorts for erotic fulfillment.

With the current anti-prostitution hysteria pushing toward punishing Johns rather than sex workers, the customers have a lot to lose. Much more quiet, for obvious reasons, were the actual customers. In the wake of the bust, several escorts who advertised their services on the site have come forward in the media to openly defend the services they provide to their clients. It didn't matter whether anybody was actually harmed. Rather, the defendants were accused of violating federal law simply by facilitating prostitution across state and international lines. There was no suggestion that anybody was being harmed at all or forced. Typically when discussing female sex workers, government officials are quick to lay claims of human trafficking and to suggest that women's participation in prostitution is largely non-consensual. The arrests were just the latest in federal and local government efforts to try to end the existence of prostitution and sex work.

In August, the Department of Homeland Security raided and arrested the staff of, a website that for nearly 20 years helped men across the world connect with male escorts.
