ABSTRACT
Rates of HIV infection among United States prostitutes are on a par with those of women in the communities of which they are a part. This is because prostitutes often use condoms, even when they have not been specifically educated to do so by AIDS prevention workers. In the midst of the AIDS crisis, the prostitute is still likely to be defined as some combination of victim and menace, particularly a public health menace. Prostitutes have not only resisted but also manipulated this fear of the diseased sex worker. Like organizations that are of more “legitimate” birth, Cal-PEP must be especially attentive to the political world in order to protect itself and its clients, so that work can go ahead. While Cal-PEP and similar AIDS-related organizations may be limited in their ability to challenge the stigmatization of prostitutes as diseased, ironically, their stigmatized status may give them legitimacy among the population they are most interested in reaching.
