As a result of this, transgendered people come here in the hopes of making a better life for themselves, in the hopes of finding success in life. They come here from every state in the union, in fact from virtually every corner of the globe, but particularly from Latin America, Asia and the Caribbean. Many of these people come from developing nations where women are treated very poorly and transgendered women are treated even worse. They are escaping war, torture and death squads and grinding, desperate poverty. Unfortunately they discover almost as much violence and lack of opportunity here, as from where they came, thus forcing them to continue working as prostitutes because they don't have other options.
Many people complain about street prostitution in the Tenderloin.
While their complaints about noise and traffic and social environment are legitimate, this is not a problem can be solved by targeting a group of people. The problems are multi-faceted. Transgendered people make up a significant portion of the street workers because of the aforementioned social factors until an alternative to working the streets is given. Unfortunately what is often overlooked in this debate is the fact that these most of these transgendered women are neighborhood residents themselves. They contribute to the neighborhood by patronizing local merchants, paying taxes and sometimes holding other jobs as well.