ABSTRACT
The gender construction of the men who were the transvestites’ lovers in the 1980s was strongly masculine. The decreasing number of clients hailing from Libano over the past ten years is expected to have a positive effect on the incidence of safe sexual practices among transvestites. For the most part, the clients interviewed were blue-collar workers with very low incomes and little formal education. The majority of the men interviewed made at least some use of drugs and/or alcohol. The life histories of the men who were the transvestites’ lovers reveal that for the most part they had been unambiguously heterosexual prior to their involvement with a transvestite. Even though transvestites are men, as are their partners, it should be emphasized that transvestite culture differs markedly from that of the gay community in Costa Rica more generally.
