Haaretz.com – By Yotam Feldman
At 2 A.M. the corner of Hagalil and Sharon Streets, in the area of the old Central Bus Station of Tel Aviv, reeks with the stench of urine and is devoid of clients. I am standing on the sidewalk with a group of transgender females. At their side is a short pimp who sees to entertainment as well as to their security and economic affairs. They have promised me that if they succeed in stopping a client, they will try to persuade him to reply to questions for an article about men who pay for sex.
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Usually he looks for a young man or a transvestite, “but that means nothing: I also sleep with a lot of women besides my wife.” Of course there is pleasure in having sex with a prostitute, a combination of shame and pleasure at the shame, he explains. “There is the need to sleep with women, and sometimes there is the need to sleep with a prostitute. That is something else completely.” And sometimes there is the need to sleep with a guy, I add, and he chuckles with embarrassment.
When I ask if he also looks for single-gender sex that is not paid for, he takes offense. “What do you take me for, a homo?” he snaps. “I only come here once in a while, but I’m straight. One hundred percent straight. No one in the world knows I come here, no one. I have never yet met anyone I know, and if that should happen, oy vavoy. If I see you or anyone else from here in the street tomorrow, there is no way I will recognize you. I just keep walking.”