Even as we progress beyond the moralistic prudishness of the Victorian era, the 21st Century still sees non-heterosexuals and sex workers living in a sexually orthodox, heteronormative society.

Between expressing one's sexuality (and facing its repercussions) and hiding one's identity, many non-heterosexuals and sex workers (or both) struggle to reconcile the distorted perception of their image with their inner selves.

In a Facebook album titled "Untold Stories: Sex Workers Are Humans Too" on Facebook page Dear Straight People (an online LGBT community), these marginalised sex workers come forward with their stories of finding true love and acceptance from their families in order to raise funds for Project X -  the first and only rights-based sex worker organisation in Singapore.

"Collectively, these stories illustrate the fact that sex workers aren't defined by their profession. But more importantly, they show that sex workers are human too," according to Project X.

Read their stories below: 

'I no longer believe in love anymore. I thought love conquered all but that was the biggest mistake I made

I met him online and after chatting for a month, we met up for our first date. I was shy as hell when we met for the first time. After a few weeks, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I’ve never been asked before so I fell hard for him. I left everything behind to be with him; my condo, my girls. We partied. We drank. I brought him to almost every hotel and restaurant because I thought that was what love was about. I thought love was the realest thing.

We lived together for 5 months till I went broke. He then left me for my best friend. That really broke me. I trusted her my whole life. I should have seen it coming. I actually dragged a gas cylinder and held a lighter and I forced my best friend to confess. She confessed and said they were in love. So I chased her out.

I made a promise to myself. I will never fall in love again. My priority now is work, house and school. I’m looking to go back to school.

I already stopped dating for about 4 years. I BTO-ed and bought a flat recently. They waived off the minimum age for me because I fall under the orphan scheme. This is one of the biggest achievements of my life. For normal people, it is so easy for them to buy house. For people like us, we have to rent all of our lives. It was an emotional moment when I first collected the flat cert.'

- Sonia, 31

'I actually came from a family of ministers. My aunts and uncles are all pastors and worship leaders so it was pretty difficult for me to transition. To them, it was the ultimate betrayal. They couldn’t understand why I was transitioning and would quote paragraphs to me from the bible telling me how transitioning was a sin.

When I came back home from a long holiday, the doors were locked and the padlocks were changed. My mum told me to leave because things at home were becoming too difficult. One part of me felt very sad but a part of me felt very relieved because I was finally free. When I was still staying at home, I had to hide myself in the room and pretend like I didn’t exist when my relatives came over.

A part of me felt happy because I was made to leave home and I actually stayed in a multi-storey car park. I would book a cheap hotel room for 2 hours to have a shower and do my laundry etc.

'Many years later when I got involved in an accident in a temple, I was asked to call my next of kin but I didn’t know who to call so I called my mum and told her I was burnt and surprisingly she came everyday to visit me with food. She told me go back home after I was discharged. Our relationship has improved now and we are all more like friends.

When my pastor uncle came by, he told my mum itwas time for them to accept me. He said if they don’t accept me, the public wouldn’t accept me either. Slowly, she started accepting me but she would still try to maintain a strong front of not accepting me. But she actually bought me a bra and even started using my cosmetics.

Before, she would normally call me by my birth name but once when we were outside, she called me Joe and told me it was because that was a unisex name. I didn’t want to show her how touched I was but deep down, I was actually jumping for joy.'

- Sandhiya, 40

'I was lucky in many ways to find true love. He was 28 when we met. It was 4 in the morning when he came up to me and said “ You are by far the most beautiful woman I have ever met.” So we went for a drink then went back to his place.

I thought that as soon as I entered he was gonna rip my clothes off but he did not. He was like ‘you sleep on this end I sleep on this end and I’m like okay...beautiful woman don’t want to touch (laughs)’. He was a true gentleman. He will not touch a woman unless a woman consents.

One week after I met him, I told him if he kept doing this he is gonna be broke. He said it was fine because he likes me. I said if I was going to be his girlfriend he has to pay for my life and he said fine. Then he took me off the streets and paid for pretty much my whole life. I dated him for 3 years then he took me out of Singapore to Dublin.

I stayed in Dublin with him for two years. All my friends said we were like David and Victoria Beckham because we were so together. Everything I did, I did it with him. Like this interview for example, he would have just been sitting down quietly in the corner watching us if we were still together.

He wanted to marry me. But I didn’t want to marry him because I was not a woman yet. I was 19 when we broke up because I cheated on him. I don’t know if I loved him enough but if I could have turned back time, I would have changed the fact that I cheated on him.'

- Nicole, 23

'I come from a family where if you want something, you have to work for it. My family is very strict, I don’t get pampered. Like when I was young, if I wanted something, I will help out at my Aunty’s store.

Even today, I still have to work for everything. I’ve met all types of customers - violent customers, customers who try to rape you, customers who leave you out in the middle of nowhere.

I even once met a customer who tried to kill me. He was angry because he didn’t know I was a transgender so he tried to kill me by choking me. I pretended to die and once he let go of me, I took my heels and smacked him and ran out of the house.'

- Shalina Nadhirah, 18

View the complete album here for the rest of their stories.

Images by Audi Khalid and Ng Yi Yang

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