Transnational Queer Histories – serie

The book offers unique insights into the politics and practice of commercial sex in the early 2000s through the eyes of male sex worker, Stefan Hülsmann, aka Marc-of-Frankfurt. It is based on sources and documents from his archive in the years 2000 to 2013. Hülsmann was a sex worker and sex workers’ rights activist in Germany and Europe between 2000 and 2013, before dying in 2017 by suicide. He left his belongings and archives to the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft. This book explores this historically unique archive of a male sex worker and activist and makes it accessible to scholars, students and activists through introductory texts and a selection of original sources. The book centers the professional and political work of Hülsmann and the creation of his sex worker persona Marc-of-Frankfurt. Sources include meticulously drafted business plans, diary entries of paid sex encounters, drawings and mind maps about Marc’s views about himself as a sex worker. Chapters tackle subjects including sex workers’ engagement with the law, especially, the legal reform of prostitution laws with the Prostitutionsgesetz (ProstG) in 2001, as well as Marc’s ideas and ideals of professionalization post legal change. Further chapters consider Marc’s efforts at "communicating sex work" and his activism within German and European sex workers’ networks, his efforts at creating a network of male sex workers and his intense activity on the sex worker online forum sexworker.at.