Urban Negotiations: The Everyday Resistance and Right to the City of Trans Women Sex Workers in Ankara

Abstract This research analyses the quotidian spatial practices of trans women sex workers in Ankara, focusing on their tactics for survival under patriarchal and cis‐heteronormative urban frameworks. Henri Lefebvre's “right to the city” notion is enlarged to incorporate transfeminist critiques such as dispossession, “price” ( bedel ), “chameleon identities” (after Emrah Karakuş), and “queer commons” (after Cenk Özbay and Evren Savcı). Numerous interviews show that people confront housing exclusion, police harassment, and stigma daily. One interviewee, İrem, said, “there is more capital outside, but the risk is heightened”, while another stated, “the internet appears more secure, despite erratic income”. Examples show how digital platforms are queer commons and trans women's “cost” of urban life is visibility negotiation. This research asserts the right to the city requires resilience, adaptability, and unity. It shows how trans women's daily behaviours undermine cis‐heteronormative urban institutions and promote radically inclusive urban futures, advancing feminist and queer urban studies.