Our Mission
Down Divas is an underground peer-to-peer support hotline for trans women run by sex workers. Why us? Because we care about you. Because we know about pain and discrimination. Because many trans women are, plan to be, or were sex workers. You do not have to be a sex worker to call us for help.
Trans men and trans nonbinary folks are absolutely welcome to call us for help too. Our branding is focused on trans women because they would currently be at high risk of getting locked up with cis men if they went to a psych ward for help, which would be wildly unsafe. This hotline is underground for this reason: it is currently terrifying for a trans woman to tell a mental health professional that she is suicidal.
We are not certified mental health or counseling professionals. We are simply humans who are willing to listen and offer what help we can, judgement free. We are people who've battled mental health problems. We've felt discrimination, we've felt dehumanization, and we've had our basic rights and resources taken from us. We will never contact any authorities, no matter what you say.
Are you a sex worker who wants to volunteer to take calls?
You don't need counseling experience. There's a reason this hotline is underground / peer-to-peer.
Volunteer training is done via video call. Some vetting is required to confirm that you're currently a SWer. Your contact information will be shared in a ProtonDoc (dual encrypted) that the other volunteers/admins can see, so please don't include your legal name or personal email/phone number! You can make a free Proton account at proton.me.
You do not have to be a trans person to volunteer. Honestly, we'd feel weird only asking trans people to volunteer. Many are very busy just trying to exist.