Photo courtesy of Kirsten Lovell.
Kirsten Lovell, the director of film “The Stroll.”
By Anna Ji ’27
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article discusses transphobia, sexual violence and murder.
During the late 20th century, a district in New York City known as The Stroll became known for providing sex club entertainment and housing the drug dealing and sex work trades.
It was during this time that Kristen Lovell — a transgender woman of color — and her fellow trans sisters began building a concealed empire of their own. A glimpse of it was unveiled to Mount Holyoke College students by Lovell herself through a virtual screening of the documentary “The Stroll,” followed by a talkback on Nov. 9.
The Stroll, also known as the Meatpacking District, resides on the lower side of Manhattan in New York City. The area takes its name from the many plants and slaughterhouses of the meatpacking industry that used to inhabit it. Lovell invited trans women of the era to speak about their experience with life in The Stroll for the documentary.
Many of these women’s stories began with them running away from their families after being rejected for their gender identity. Similarly, Kristen Lovell left her home at the age of 15 to make a living of her own. She started as a coffee shop worker when she first moved to New York but was fired as soon as she decided to transition.
With no other opportunities, Lovell began engaging in sex work like many other transgender women of color. Lovell was no stranger to documentaries even before “The Stroll,” having once been approached to appear in one. Once she realized that she would not have control over her own story, Lovell decided to delve into the world of filmmaking and directing to tell a story of her own.
“I was determined to make a film about The Stroll,” Lovell said in the documentary. “I wanted to know the history of how long trans women had been coming into the area and for how long sex work has been a part of our story. We were pushed out of the neighborhood years ago, and now you don’t see us here anymore. My mission was to tell this story before we’re gone. I felt that I could get it right if I was the one to tell it.”
The Stroll was both dangerous and beautiful to those who inhabited it. Izzi “Cashmere,” one of the subjects of the documentary, recalled The Stroll to be scary. “It gave me anxiety. I was having a panic attack because I didn’t want to have sex with people. That wasn’t really what I was interested in. But I have no clue how to get money at 15 years old on the streets, so that’s where I ended up.”
It was in that precarious district where Lovell found beauty. “It was just amazing to see strong, Black trans women … I [decided] to … transition. And because I’ve seen everybody’s so confident in themselves, I was able to draw that out of myself. So when I first stepped onto that stroll, it empowered me that they can live their life like this, and I can live my life like this too.”
However, what was considered a glamorous phenomenon to trans women was trouble for the police officers, who were told to eliminate sex work within the district. According to a recording of a police officer included in the documentary: “Last Sunday night that just passed, we locked up six females the rest of the night. … we’re not playing around, and we’ll be out again, and we’ll lock them up again until they get the message and realize that 14th Street is not for prostitution.” Immediately after the recording, Carey, a sex worker who was interviewed in the documentary, explained that many of her clients were officers.
Under the police authority’s oppression, many of the transfeminine sex workers became activists to speak up for their rights. Sylvia Rivera was a leading figure who later became an icon for sex workers who were fighting for their rights.
One of the film subjects, Stefani, said of Rivera, “She was one of the initiators of the Stonewall riots. I think with Sylvia being out on the streets and having to fend for herself at such an early age, she saw herself in many of our shoes and many of our situations.”
Unfortunately, the mainstream lesbian and gay community at the time was not allied with Rivera or Marsha P. Johnson, who fought for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community alongside Rivera. According to Lovell, “I think the gay community wanted to be accepted into mainstream society, to show people that homosexuals are just like everybody else. So when you have trans and gender-nonconforming people, it just makes things a little bit more difficult to explain … the mainstream lesbian and gay community drove Sylvia and Marsha crazy because they put themselves on the line to fight for gay liberation and power. After all they fought for, they were pushed to the side.”
In 1994, Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani took the oath of office as the 107th mayor of New York. The politician brought in “broken windows policing,” a concept explained in the documentary by Jeremiah Moss, the author of “Vanishing New York.” “Broken windows theory is basically that where there is disorder, it will lead to violent crime. So they basically alighted things like graffiti, loitering, boom boxes, sex work with rape and murder. When you see graffiti, [they think] someone’s gonna get raped and murdered,” Moss said.
As Egyptt, one of the sex workers, recalled, “[Mayor Rudy] Giuliani literally came for us in ways that we’ve never seen before. We were taken out of a place of freedom and put into a place where we were cattle. Christopher Street became his target. 42nd Street became his target. These were known places where we could thrive and survive.” Under heavy regulations like this, the sex work industry in the Meatpacking District was soon taken down.
In 2023, nothing in the Meatpacking District is the same — but stories of The Stroll remain in the hearts of the trans women who together witnessed the former beauty and menace of the district. Lovell pointed out that her intention when making the documentary was to remedy the lack of recognition for sex work, which played a significant role for trans women throughout history. “I felt that there was a gap missing … There was such a large chunk of history missing that wasn’t being filled in, and I realized that it was the stifling sex work,” Lovell said. “You really can’t tell an authentic trans story if you can’t tell stories about sex workers … So I needed to fill in that gap, and that’s why it was so important to have the ladies from different generations, from different eras, and that’s how the story came out.”
To end the discussion, Lovell talked about the progress of the LGBTQ+ community and her visions for the future. “There is still more work to do in terms of equity . . . I may have just gotten a job, or one of my other sponsors may have just gotten a job, but the overwhelming majority of trans people aren’t working. They’re not in well-paying jobs and are on the borderline of poverty,” Lovell said. “But the wonderful thing is that I got to see the old way of how society and the world were towards trans people. And I got to come into and be involved in this new world where we're actually having these types of conversations and reviewing the history and bringing them to the forefront, and so on.”
While there is still progress to be made for trans rights, Lovell sees room for joy.
“I'm able to witness in my lifetime that there are trans people finishing school, going to college, graduating, and becoming staples in society … It’s all a blessing, and I’m so happy that I get to witness that here,” Lovell said.