ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the challenges of preventing HIV and other sexually transmissible infections among male sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Based on a 1992 evaluation study of an AIDS/STD prevention programme for male sex workers in Rio de Janeiro, the analysis looks at the ideological determinants of this segment of the sex industry, the logics that inform understandings of risk, and the overall strategy of health care provision to male sex workers in place at that time. In particular, it focuses on the role of homophobia as both a structuring component of one segment of the male sex trade (michês) and as one of the chief obstacles to the effective provision of health care – including AIDS prevention services – to this population.