Renon Schafer is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word.
“I specialize in BDSM and hard-core fetish. So, BDSM is bondage, discipline and sadomasochism so basically anything and everything a little bit kinky,” the 22-year-old tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Schafer is a sex worker from Queensland. He started turning tricks in college in exchange for classmates doing his homework but quickly learned he could make actual money for it.
“I had already been doing different types of opportunistic sex work, and when I moved to Brisbane I was struggling to find work and I was quite poor and I just decided one day on Grindr to just put Escort Services,” he explains.
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Schafer now runs his business out of his house in the suburbs, where he has a special room equipped with a mattress, decorative bedspread, purple filtered mood lights, and a small bathroom.
“I’ve got various types of bondage equipment, including ropes, there’s wrist cuffs, ankle cuffs, stuff that I can use to hog tie–that’s where wrists and ankles are both bound together behind the back,” he says.
Schafer is also a spokesman for Respect, an advocacy group for sex workers focused on improving laws that protect sex work.
“Private workers in Queensland cannot work together,” he explains. “That would be classified as an illegal brothel. That means that we cannot cost share, we cannot support each other, we can’t be there for each other’s safety.”
He continues, “We are not really allowed to message other sex workers about our current location, or our activities, which is a safety strategy that has traditionally been used by sex workers for decades.”
Related: Some of these people happen to be sex workers. Can you guess which ones?
On top of that, he says, sex workers can’t really go to police for help. They also have trouble getting bodyguards or life insurance.
“There’s a lot of those sort of really small, day-to-day things that we don’t have access to,” he says. “There’s also the social isolation aspect of things where because there is such a stigma against sex work, that it can be quite dangerous and scary to out yourself as a worker.”
Schafer says he hopes his efforts to raise awareness to his line or work and the dangers he and other sex workers face on a daily basis will help open people’s minds.
“To decriminalize the sex industry and to decriminalize sex work is the first step in lifting the cultural stigma against sex work,” he says. “It’s the first step in people viewing our work as being legitimate real work that matters.”
Related: True confessions: A week in the life of a male sex worker from Dublin
Paco
He went to college and was too lazy to do the class work, so didn’t learn anything by having others do the work for him. Now he is having articles written about how clever he was for not learning anything other than that getting paid for sex is instant cash and more valuable than an earned degree.
Creamsicle
Yeah my main thoughts are:
-Doing this at a young age (22!) especially is going to seriously mess up your perception of sex and intimacy.
-It’s still a criminal venture and he’s putting himself in legal jeopardy talking about it, so maybe he’s not as clever as he thinks he is.
-Fucker had better have a set of skills to fall back on, because his clientele will eventually dry up as he gets older.
Bob LaBlah
I find it not surprising that he didnt mention drugs. A sex worker and no mention of drugs? GTFOH. NatGeo had a program on two years ago about a SF sex worker who is not only HIV positive but he wouldn’t be able to survive (more or less) with that extra income in overpriced SF. He is into heavy S&M and the rest. I actually felt sorry for the guy because he is still good looking but slamming was clearly taking its toll on him as I bet it does with many of the gay sex workers in Australia and elsewhere.
ChrisK
Puleaze. That’s not news. Anyone who moves to SF is going to be whoring themselves out sooner then later unless their pulling in at least a 6 figure salary.
ChrisK
Wow. I mean where are you going to find life changing articles like this after all. Truly and amazing life.
paul dorian lord fredine
in reference to your other comment: really? anyone who moves to san francisco is going to end up being a whore? ANYONE? generalize much? makes me wonder where you live.
Heywood Jablowme
I won’t know what to think about this until both Danny595 and Jaxton have given their expert opinions on it.
JaredMacBride
A 22 year old moron with a mini-dungeon. What could possibly go wrong?
Mandrake
Well, I’d never hire him with that snotty piece of metal hanging out of his nose. Is a piercing like that supposed to be sexy or appealing? to whom?
Griff_Greymuzzle
As a person with a nose ring, fuck you. I didn’t get it for you. I got it for me. Stop being a judgmental prick.
Donston
The problem with “de-stigmatizing” sex work is that it forces people to ignore some harsh realities. That doing sex work means that the chances of you being assualted or raped go up dramatically, that the chances of you contracting STDs goes up dramatically, that very naive and desperate and easily manipulated people get caught up in it, that people with little self-esteem or little self-knowledge or people with extreme personality disorders or people who suffer from frequent bouts of depression or anxiety often get caught up in it, that drug addicts often get caught up it or become addicts when indulge sex work, that people who have already suffered through psyche damaging rape, assault or molestation often get caught up in it without confronting those core issues first.
All that sh*t needs to be confronted and spoken about freely before looking at it as “real work”.
dwes09
A whole lot of the issues you mention are based on the fact that sex work IS stigmatized and illegal (and that drugs are illegal as well).
None of the issues are intrinsic to sex work at all.
And since there are models to be seen in both other countries and in at least one state regarding the legalization and monitoring of sex work, one need no rely on one’s biases or assumptions. There are actual statistics to look at.
Donston
I actually know the stats and I have some experience (not personal experience but engaging with people who have gotten into sex work). Should it be legal? Yes. Should you feel like an outcast from society for doing sex work? No. But let’s not act like there aren’t a ton of issues that are more widespread among sex workers and the sex trade industry. And let’s not act as if being a drug addicated prostitute having sex with DL married men is ever something to aspire to.
Do what you want with your body. I’m never here for stopping people from doing so. I’m just at a loss for why the lgbtq media keeps desperately trying to make sure the “sex work cause” remains connected to issues of gay and gay-leaning men and why we are constantly told that we have to care about it.
Xzamilloh
I’m hoping he got some kind of degree out of those tricks he was turning in college. I don’t knock sex workers at all, and wish it was a regulated industry in America to better protect them and to remove the stigma, but it’s not exactly a field that has a 401K and longevity… unless he’s the top, and even then, that’s only a slightly longer shelf life.
Bob LaBlah
Just keep in mind whether top or bottom meningitis doesn’t play around and its still out there.
Donston
I agree with legalizing and regulated it. It makes zero sense that pornography is legal or hell, just being with someone or occasionally hooking up with someone primarily for money or a certain lifestyle is legal but unabashed prostitution is not.
Geeker
So we’re supposed to admire this guy for first, being too lazy to do his own class work and then just dropping it all to pursue his true calling as a full-time BDSM prostitute?…Is this the best you could do Queerty?
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
You say “sex worker”; I will continue to say “prostitute” — beacause you are indeed specifically a PROSTITUTE. Reframing agenda be damned
Polaro
LOL…don’t throw rocks.
ChrisK
Jeez people. I didn’t realize this has turned into the old bitties knitting club. He is a sex worker. Big woop. He’s cute and doing what most of us can’t.
Polaro
LOL, you nailed it on the pointy head. QWEERTY comments are always full of bitter people (age irrelevant) and contrarians. Very predictable.
Jaxton
Prostitution?
tham
He exchanged sex for someone to do his homework? That’s a thing now?
Polaro
There’s a rock on top of your head; crawl out from under it.
tham
Hahaha, you know that’s not how that saying goes…
Ahh, Russians with their odd take on American sayings.
Polaro
Yeah, that’s me, the Russian. Hmm, now what would be Putin’s motive for calling you out for being naive?
tham
Discord.
I mean, that’s NOT a saying. “there’s a rock on your head…” we get what your doing…it adorable.
Just like those Cadets sucking on a banana…adorable.
Polaro
Everyone pays for sex or expects to be paid for sex in one form or another; it’s the hypocrisy of small minds that is so very funny.
Jaxton
Women do but not men. In general, men have sex for the pleasure that sex brings, not for any payments or other rewards.
Polaro
Ah, if that were only true.
tham
How cute, Russians “arguing” with Russians.
Jaxton
Isn’t this just prostitution? Sex is something that men do for free.
Tobi
No, Brian, not if you look like you, then no they don’t do it for free.
Jaxton
Prostitution is nothing to be proud of.
Polaro
Small world you live in.
dwes09
Are you so dull that you cannot recognize the difference between reality and an opinion.
Let me rephrase that correctly:
“I BELIEVE prostitution is nothing to be proud of.”
Personally I share that belief in some circumstances, but I recognize it is belief only, and don’t present it as fact. It’s not.
Tobi
You should be grateful, girl, it’s the only way you’re ever going to get laid.
ChrisK
@Tobi. Ha. The best jokes are based on facts. Jaxton screams sad loner. I’m sure rejection is his only dating experience.
DuMaurier
Mom must be so proud.
dwes09
As if the only point of life is to do what one presumes will make mom proud. And as if you have any idea at all what exactly would make his mom proud.
STONEWALL BOY
Years ago I lived in Amsterdam where prostitution is legal. Unlike the girls who sell it from windows in the red light district men or boys can be found in brothels. They are all tested for STD’s and are protected. I think it seems like a last resort but if someone wants to sell their bodies for sex it all their choice. And as someone who fought for gay rights during the Stonewall era I cannot see taking away someone’s civil rights, no matter what they are.
Polaro
People make a distinction between doing the exact same sex act with one version done for money different from the one done for dinner and a movie, or a nice vacation. You are right, it is none of our business what a man does with his body, or why he does it.
tham
When I was in France, I was always told that everyone knew I was an American because I’d always say “Je ne sais pas” (I do not know) instead of “sais pas” (don’t know).
Polaro, you do that a lot…a lot, a lot.
Polaro
tham, that makes no sense…
tham
Of course that doesn’t make sense to you…you have a problem with contractions (your grammar is…too formal).
LilMesican
A Letter To Young Queers:
Go to college so you have a place to sleep after you are done for the night picking up Johns, hiding from police, followed by thugs, doing some drugs and smelling like an outhouse.
Ah, college life!
DCguy
Oh look, one of the phony anti-lgbt troll screenames not only has a racist screename, but is parroting the Right wing memo that all college is bad. Because of course, you can’t keep winning if your base isn’t stupid.
If you’re going to bring out a new screename and use a fake picture you may want to change up your wording so it isn’t so easy to spot you.
Doug
What was the purpose of posting this article? Are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy?
If so, you’ve got to be kidding.
ElPillo
“turning tricks in college in exchange for classmates doing his homework”. Did he only asked gay students? Or is the grammar off in the article?
Brian
I’m shocked Queerty didn’t include the word “hero” in the headline.
Brody
They save that term for men who think they’re women.
Polaro
Oh, snap! LOL.
Condor221
Never thought of this while in Grad school…hmmmm 🙂
Jaxton
No pride in being a prostitute.
mhoffman953
@Jaxton
Yup. Nothing to be proud about here. No matter what the others say, whoring yourself out for some cash isn’t something to be proud about or brag about.
I’m not debating the topic of whether it should be legalized or not because this post isn’t about that. This kid has no future if this is what he plans on doing with his life and brags about it.
If I was an employer and googled Renon Schafer then found this article, I wouldn’t hire him.
Evji108
Some guy sucks d’ck to get through school instead of actually doing the work and learning something and people are using him as a shining example in order to remove the stigma from sex work. Good plan, who could criticize that sound logic?
Polaro
No, you missed the point. Go back and read the article and try again. D-
Lacuevaman
he must not have much competition…..he’s def not a looker!
Brody
I suspect his clientele hail from the days of talkies and Model Ts.
ChrisK
Maybe according to you but IMO and I’m sure many more he is a a cutie.
Polaro
Yeah, he’s cute. Not into BDSM, but he is cute.
MrKnowItAll
Another Journalistic Masterpiece from Gremore. You’re almost ready to start writing for the Enquirer, Graham.
Brody
The message here?
“You too can slide by in life with minimal effort and zero respect for yourself.”
Keepin’ it classy as always, Queerty.
Polaro
Sliding by, like the minimal effort you put into reading the article? It was about health and safety for sex workers. D-
surfpenis
Word. What some judgmental old Aunt Nellie’s commenting here, sitting in their rockers (covered in their shawls) whilst knitting and casting judgement. So what if boys are whores? What’s it to you? Stay in your lanes, Mary Ethel. Nothing wrong with picking up some bucks in exchange for some head or tail.