Male health in general tends to be understudied and neglected, and though research and resources for sex workers remain limited overall, that’s even more so the case for male sex workers.

It’s something that Health Initiative for Men (HIM) executive director Greg Oudman told the Georgia Straight in an interview in 2019 about HIM’s Hustle: Men on the Move program, a Vancouver outreach and support program for men involved in sex work.

The Vancouver-based Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity (CGSHE) is endeavouring to address this imbalance by conducting research on the health and safety of men (including those who are cisgender and transgender, non-binary, and two spirit) who work in sex industries in Metro Vancouver.

This research seeks to explore what issues that men in sex industries are facing and the impact of current sex work legislation.

CGSHE researchers are interested in speaking with men who have sold sex in the past six months, or who have exchanged sex for food, shelter, or drugs within the past six months.

Although this study doesn’t specify any particular focus on COVID-19, the pandemic has had an impact on all sex workers, ranging from health concerns to shifts in consumer spending behaviour to online sex sources that not all sex workers are capable of providing.

For more information or to arrange for a confidential, indepth interview by phone or online (with an honorarium), contact research assistant Brett Koenig by email or calling 236-788-9320.

This specific study is part of a larger research project, An Evaluation of Sex Workers Health Access, that has been ongoing since 2010.

More information about CGSHE can be found at the centre's website.