Rise of monkeypox worries sex workers: 'It feels like we are seen as disposable'
LOS ANGELES — With monkeypox on the rise, Lady Kay decided to hold off on meeting clients in hotel rooms or private dungeons.
The 32-year-old dominatrix had already been taking precautions to protect herself from the coronavirus, insisting that clients show that they were vaccinated against COVID-19 or had recently tested negative. Now the South Los Angeles resident was worried about the newest outbreak — an infectious virus that can travel through skin-to-skin contact and has spread in intimate encounters.
"I want to get more into making sure my limbs are covered," added Lady Kay, a transgender woman who asked to go by the pseudonym that she uses for sex work. "And I definitely want to more judiciously wear gloves — latex gloves. Which adds to the aesthetic anyway."
As monkeypox has proliferated in Los Angeles and across the country, sex workers have fretted about how to keep themselves safe from a virus that can cause excruciating lesions and force people to isolate for weeks.
The virus has predominantly hit gay and bisexual men so far, but the rise of monkeypox has alarmed Angelenos of
