Trans Vision: Cookie Cosmos on Changing Expectations, Advocacy Through Porn, and Coming Out

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TransEthics: Your Twitter bio says you’re an “ethical queer porn creator and performer” Exactly what does that mean to you?

Cookie Cosmos: To me, Ethical Porn has always meant treating performers well. In my case I work with other trans people, so I try to make content the performers want to make, make sure they are comfortable doing it and that they take home a fair cut. It also means taking down content that the performer is no longer happy being marketed. I’ve cut scenes short in the past because a performer is experiencing dysphoria, and if you are working with other trans people I think that’s the least you can do.

TE: Do you think it’s important that trans porn be made by trans people? Continue reading →

Trans Satanic: Sadie Satanas on Religion, Kink, and Polyamorous Marriage

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TransEthics: I understand that you’re married. How long have you and your wife been together, and when in your relationship did you come out as transgender to her?

Sadie Satanas: My spouse and I were married on June 6th 2006 (6/6/6), but we’ve been together for 15 years. We are poly, but committed. I came out to her about 4 years ago after we moved from the Bible belt of Oklahoma to the Bay Area.

TE: How did that initially affect your relationship? Continue reading →

Trans Differential: Halley Wynn on Trans Bodies, ‘Deadly Babes’, and Ethics in Sex Work

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TransEthics: Your Twitter profile says you are a “muscle t-girl”… would you care to expand on what that means to you?

Halley Wynn: Well, there are two separate but inclusive fields of thought I have on that: The personal and the political. I like fitness, weight lifting, different movement arts and working out in general. Participating in these activities generally gives you increased muscle tone and increased mass depending on the type and volume of activity, because of this I identify as muscly.

Now for my political opinions, I feel like femme people but especially trans femme folks are incentivized to avoid muscle mass or lots of tone. Being that it is supposedly a masculine trait, and therefore being “overly” fit is akin to outing yourself according to some. So I am a trans femme fitness enthusiast: Muscle T-girl. Continue reading →

Trans Sadism: Stacy Sadistic on Domming, Narratives, and Transition

TransEthics: How old were you when you started pursuing sex work?

Stacy Sadistic: I was 23 when I first started doing things for money, but I had been in the fetish scene for many years before that. I had a girlfriend who introduced me to the fetish world. She took me to lots of fetish events, and introduced me to new things and new people. I grew up in a small town, so I was kind of repressed. I reluctantly got into cross-dressing at her request, but soon found that I really enjoyed it. We had sort of a switch dynamic, but after many years together, I realized she was abusive, so I left.

Its funny, because lots of people told me that I was “naturally submissive,” and would never be a good dominant. I don’t think BDSM is something I would have sought out naturally on my own volition, but after getting into it, I found that I enjoyed being able to give my partner a certain experience, the play was fun, and I liked the community. Continue reading →

Trans Specialty: Stefani Special on Trans BDSM, Progress in Porn, and Vernacular

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TransEthics: What did you do before you got into the Industry?

Stefani Special: Many, many 9 to 5 jobs. Food service mostly but also customer service rep, sales person, construction. I actually started web-camming & escorting before porn too.

TE: What was your motivation for getting started in sex work?

SS: It kind of chose me. I chose to proceed with it because I love sex. I’ve said it before in other interviews but I was working at a sandwich shop & I would have customers ask me at the counter if I had an ad up. I was like what the fuck is that…? Then I did research & was like “oh, okay”. I was already web-camming at the time but mostly just Skype & Yahoo Messenger to get a feel for what it was.

So after pushing it around in my head & originally thinking I could go into cis porn & having that dream crash, I contacted Grooby. They didn’t have shooters in Dallas at the time, but I was contacted shortly after by Omar Wax to shoot. Also I had a brief, like 1-3 scenes in solo gay porn but of course you wouldn’t recognize me even if you knew me. That was way prior to Grooby of course, and actually even prior to escorting. Continue reading →

Trans Dreams: Kailee Keller on Jobs, Restrooms, and Success

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TransEthics: What is it that attracted you to the Adult Industry?

Kailee Keller: Well as like anyone and everyone, I love porn (laughs). I actually didn’t really seek it out though, the industry kinda found me. I always had it in the back of my head that I know I could do porn, and I would probably be good at it. I started camming a long time ago to make a little side money in college when things were rough, and I really enjoyed it, so I knew I would enjoy doing professional shoots with websites! Continue reading →

Trans Balance: Wendy Summers on Corporate Life, Acceptance, and Polyamory

TransEthics: How long have you been in the sex industries?

Wendy Summers: I started camming back in 2010. I kind of started on a lark — I was supposed to meet a friend for lunch and she cancelled at the last-minute. I got bored, so I logged into an account I had on iFriends and was shocked to find guys going gaga over me. I made an insane amount of money that first afternoon, so that night I sat down and put a business plan together. I started shooting pictures and video for my iFriends fan club by myself and realized it would be easier to have someone else behind the camera. I hired a photographer and things just sort of snowballed from there. I launched my self-produced solo website, www.wendysummers.com in February 2012.

It’s all grown out of my fan’s support for the work I do. One thing just lead to another. I must be doing something right, as I’ve been updating weekly for over 3 years and I’ve won the 2013 RISE Award for Best Shemale Performer (their choice of words) and three Transgender Erotica Awards over my career and well as xbiz and AVN nominations. It’s been an awesome journey so far. Continue reading →

Trans Schooling: Kelli Lox on Drugs, Sexuality, and an Academy for Trans Girls

TransEthics: What do you do besides escorting?

Kelli Lox: I star in porn, and I have lots of projects in the works. And I interact with fans and peers on twitter. which is super fun.

TE: Your tweets are both insightful and witty. What inspires your sense of humor?

KL: Well… my PR lady tells me not to talk about drugs in interviews, so … ummmm. … I guess my love of history, and science, and real-world interests and hobbies. I genuinely find so many things interesting and I love being able to share that. I like taking things that ppl don’t see often together, like spirituality and sex, or history and sex, or, well anything plus sex really (laughs) and putting them together in novel ways that makes people think while they laugh, and pull down their pants to masturbate. I have that freedom to tweet about anything I want to, and the brains to make it clever, thank goodness. Sometimes, I am actually educating people about something, but really I’m just making a dumb joke. I love that. Continue reading →

Trans Masculinity: James Darling on Gaining Male Privilege, the Trans 100, and Making a Difference

Trans Ethics: We’ve interviewed trans-masculine non-binary people here before, but never a trans man, so you get to pop the cherry here. Do you feel trans men are ignored in the media?

James Darling: Trans men are often not represented in mainstream media as much as trans women. I think that has to do with a lot of factors, one of them being that there just aren’t as many higher profile trans male celebrities as there are trans women celebrities. I also think most people are unfamiliar with what trans men are, and maybe don’t find it as interesting tabloid fodder as they do with trans women, and that probably has more to do with transmisogyny than anything else. For example, trans men are more often celebrated for wanting to be men vs the way trans women are often looked down on for wanting to be women.

TE: Would you be so kind as to tell us some of the issues trans men face? Continue reading →

Trans Navigation: Tiffany Starr on Living Stealth, Getting into Sex Work, and Zombies

TransEthics: How did you get into the sex industry?

Tiffany Starr: I’ve always thought it would be cool to be in the adult entertainment industry, but I never thought I would actually do it. It seems a lot of people fantasize about it at one time or another. It started a little over five years ago. I was working as a receptionist for a large software company. My job had a lot of down time and paid very well. I had a girlfriend at the time named Sarah to whom I was very attached to, and a great car to boot. That all changed in one month.

My car was totaled by a pickup truck and insurance paid just enough to cover the loan. A week after that I was laid off because the company was downsizing and cutting corners. A few days after that my girlfriend at the time and I broke up. I was left devastated, depressed, and with a lot of unpaid bills. Due to the economy being in shambles it was tough finding a replacement job.

Thus I grew desperate and reached out to a friend of mine who just so happened to be a popular transsexual porn star. She offered me a shoot on her website and that all I would need to do if fly to L.A. I decided to contact all the porn companies I could before going out there, because if I was going to shoot one scene I may as well shoot a bunch. It was only supposed to be a temporary fix until I found a new job. However after shooting for most of the major Transsexual porn sites out there I grew popular. It was then that SMC (shemaleclub) offered me a website in their network. I took the offer and I have been shooting porn ever since. Continue reading →