This paper proposes to approach Applied Linguistics to a little studied context in language studies in Brazil: the prevention of STD/AIDS. Based on a non-essentialist view of the relationship between language and social identities, it discusses the importance of minding the use of language in this context and describes the interactional construction of identities in interventions for distribution of condoms among transvestite prostitutes in an urban region of Southern Brazil. Data indicate that during the talks, Sandra and Marcia, female gender and sex, engage in interactions in which they use identity inter-texts associated with non-traditional identities and thus produce the effect of the adequacy of their identities to the transvestites and to the interactional context in which they operate. It argues that language, identity and inter-textuality are fundamental constructs to understand this interactional context and to address the spread of STD/AIDS.
STD; Applied Linguistics; identity; inter-textuality; travestites
