‘The Stroll’ Looks at Trans Sex Workers in New York’s Meatpacking District
thegavoice.comWhen Kristen Lovell relocated to New York in the ’90s, she lost her job as she began her transition. She needed money and began sex work in a Manhattan Meatpacking district area called “The Stroll.” Decades later, co-directors Lovell and Zachary Drucker remember that time in a new HBO documentary of the same name. “The Stroll” premiered at Sundance this year and won the U.S.
Documentary Special Jury Award. When Lovell was a homeless teen on the streets of New York, she quickly realized many transgender women wound up working on The Stroll.
They became a community. “We had to form this particular bond, especially being queer, trans and gender nonconforming,” Lovell said. “We had to face a lot of discrimination.
We couldn’t just walk into an establishment and get a job. And even if we did secure employment, there was blatant discrimination there and I remember — as a young person working in these restaurants and coffee shops even being gay at the time, there was still that stigma.” During her time on the streets, though, Lovell eventually became a mother bear to the younger gay kids and moved from simply surviving to being an activist. “I think during that time of being on the streets, when you age out of youth programs and there are no other options for you, things become dire,” she said. “When you age out at 21, you have no protection, and you are really on the streets and you had no choice but to advocate.
