The Independent has, arguably, achieved peak Social Justice™ intersectionality with this one: we have a developing nation, gender-spectrum minorities, sex work, and Climate Change™ all rolled up into one hell of a ball of yarn.
Related: Study: The Science™ Pins Climate Change™ on Human Breathing
Hold on to your hats, boys and girls. This one’s a long trip down into the abyss.
Via The Independent (emphasis added):
Joya Patiha, a 43-year-old Indonesian transgender woman, first started to notice that changing weather patterns in the mountain-ringed city of Bandung were affecting her income as a sex worker a decade ago.
The rainy season was lasting longer across the West Java province, winds were stronger and in some particularly bad years Patiha lost up to 80% of her earnings.
Trans women like Patiha are among the most affected by extreme weather linked to climate change, as well as suffering disproportionately when disasters strike.
“No one is coming out during the longer rainy season,” said Patiha. “It is very hard to make money during that unpredictable weather.”
Indonesia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and trans women, who tend to face more stigma and marginalisation than trans men or other LGBTQ+ Indonesians, are also among those hardest hit by extreme weather.
That’s because many trans women, like Patiha, are shut out of the formal economy and survive as buskers and sex workers, occupations that rely on them being able to solicit clients outdoors.
Where does one even begin here?
First of all, the alleged economic hardships endured by Indonesian transgender sex workers — taking the premise at face value — are only tangentially related to the weather. The real problem, if this can be said to be a problem in need of a solution, is a social one, namely that transgenders are allegedly shut out of the mainstream economy.
Second, what kind of sex workers actually walk the street anymore? This is the age of the internet. The industry has evolved. Having done intrepid on-the-ground Gonzo-style reporting in my memoir, “Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile,” for which I have yet to receive any awards, I know for a fact that certain “dating” applications are the preferred method of transacting business for transgender sex workers and their clients.
Alas, I kept reading in anticipation of finding any actual objective, quantifiable evidence that Indonesian transgender sex workers are disproportionately impacted by the ravages of Climate Change™. None were forthcoming; instead what was offered were anecdotal, fanciful accounts of persecution from neurotic academics and a survey of 80 transes in Jakarta.
Continuing:
LGBTQ+ individuals are sometimes blamed for problems related to climate change, according to Arif Budi Darmawan, a researcher at the Bandung-based Resilience Development Initiative.
“Those outside the binary category are often labelled with the category ‘deviant’, (and) associated with the causes of environmental problems and disasters,” said Darmawan, who has researched how climate change affects trans Indonesians…
The group also surveyed 80 members of the trans community in Jakarta to find out how climate change affected incomes, frequency of illness, and changes in spending from 2021 to 2022.
Nearly 93% of respondents saw decreased income during the rainy season, and 72% had increased expenses.
A survey of 80 biased members of the “trans community” by biased researchers with an incentive to exaggerate their hardships: incontrovertible evidence.
