The arguments presented in this study are based on an ethnographic investigation resulting from an anthropological research carried out with transvestites involved in prostitution. From the analysis of the findings of this study, the transvestites were classified according to categories denoting differences which generally are not adequately taken into consideration by health policy-makers, but which are indeed significant to the transvestites since those differences indicate singular manners of subjectivity which include gender, generation, social class, and race. Therefore, this study focused on investigating how these social markers of difference influence contextually and socially the answers resulting from the systematic association between transvestites and AIDS and also how these facts are connected considering specific experiences of becoming ill and suffering, at the same time that they enable them to develop resistance strategies to deal with stigmatization processes. The analyses are based on post-structuralist theories and on contributions from feminism as an epistemological criticism.
Transvestites; AIDS; Social Markers of Difference; Diversity; Difference