Decision-Making at the Intersection of Risk and Pleasure: A Qualitative Inquiry with Trans Women Engaged in Sex Work in Lima, Peru.

ABSTRACT: To inform culturally relevant HIV prevention interventions, we explore the complexity of sex work among Peruvian transgender women. In 2015, we conducted twenty in-depth interviews and demographic surveys with transgender women in Lima, Peru to examine how transgender women enact individual- and community-level resistance strategies within a context of pervasive marginalization. Although 40% self-identified as "sex workers," 70% recently exchanged sex for money. Participants described nuanced risk-benefit analyses surrounding paid sexual encounters. Classification of clients as "risky" or "rewarding" incorporated issues of health, violence, and pleasure. Interviews highlighted context-informed decision-making (rejecting disrespectful clients, asserting condom use with specific partner type

SUBMITTER: Naz-McLean S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9897010 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature