Travestismo y transexualidad en las revistas argentinas de medicina, 1971-1982 / Transvestism and transsexuality in Argentine medical journals, 1971-1982

Resumen El presente artículo aborda los discursos producidos por el campo médico argentino en torno a las iniciativas de corporización de travestis y transexuales en Argentina entre 1971 y 1982. A través del relevamiento y análisis de una selección de artículos publicados en revistas académicas de medicina, se analizan los sentidos que profesionales de la salud asignaron a las mismas antes de la producción de fallos judiciales y normativas nacionales que reconocen la identidad de género como un derecho humano. El análisis realizado permite identificar las particularidades que asumían dichas iniciativas de corporización en el período de estudio, así como las formas en las que el campo médico argentino les imprimió sentidos morales, técnicos y profesionales.

Abstract This article deals with the discourses produced by the Argentine medical field relating to body transformation initiatives on the part of transvestites and transsexuals in Argentina from 1971-1982. Based on the compilation and analysis of a set of articles published in academic medical journals, it examines the meanings that health professionals assigned to these initiatives prior to the legal rulings and national legislation that recognized gender identity as a human right. This analysis helps identify the particular features of those body transformation initiatives during the period studied, as well as the ways in which the medical field in Argentina attached moral, technical and professional meanings to them.

A bioética e a prevenção da aids para travestis / Bioethics and Aids Prevention for Transvestites

O objetivo geral deste trabalho é produzir conhecimento acerca das estratégias de prevenção do HIV/AIDS, voltadas para as travestis, a partir da Bioética de Intervenção e da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos (DUBDH). O alto índice de infecções pelo HIV e dos casos de aids entre as travestis implica no reconhecimento da gravidade da epidemia entre esta população, e, consequentemente, demanda questionamentos das estratégias de prevenção das políticas governamentais, com vista a atenuar os impactos deste fenômeno. Para tanto, este trabalho discorre sobre o fato de que as pessoas vivenciam seus corpos, gênero e suas sexualidades de diferentes maneiras, obrigando um novo olhar a tais processos, para definir o que é ou não é "natural" e agregar as "descontinuidades" e/ou "incoerências sexuais", inclusive junto as políticas públicas. Nestes termos, o trabalho evidencia ainda que as violações dos direitos resultam na expectativa de morte e no risco de adoecimento em decorrência da aids e compõem as experiências subjetivas, fazendo dialogar os nexos de causalidade entre as dinâmicas sociais e o elevado risco para o HIV entre pessoas trans. A partir do histórico das políticas nacionais relacionadas às travestis, de experiências dos encontros e de programas de prevenção, afirma-se a necessidade de que as especificidades das travestis sejam consideradas na elaboração, planejamento e consecução das políticas de prevenção do HIV/AIDS em saúde, de modo que os princípios de equidade, justiça social, o respeito a dignidade da pessoa humana, sejam respeitadas

The objective of this work is to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention strategies, targeting the transvestite community from the Bioethics Intervention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (DUBDH). The high rate of HIV infections and AIDS cases within the transgender community, is evidence of the seriousness of the epidemic among this population, and therefore demands prevention strategies of government policies to mitigate the impacts of this phenomenon. This paper discusses the fact that people experience their bodies, sexuality and gender in different ways, challenging the perception and definition of what is "natural" and reflecting their human rights in public policies. Additionally, the work shows that violations of rights result in the expectation of death and the risk of falling ill due to AIDS and compose the subjective experiences, using arguments of the causal links between social dynamics and the high risk for HIV among transgender people. From the history of national policies related to the transgender individual and from experiences and encounters of prevention programs, it is stated the necessity that the specifics of transgender individuals are considered in the design, planning and implementation of HIV-aids prevention policies on health so that the principles of equity, social justice, and respect for human dignity are respected

Em direito a um futuro trans?: contribuição para a história do movimento de travestis e transexuais no Brasil / ¿Rumbo a un futuro trans?: contribuciones a una historia del movimiento de travestis y transexuales en Brasil / Towards a Trans future?: contributions to a history of the travesti and transsexual movement on Brasil

Buscamos neste artigo reconstruir uma história do movimento social de travestis e transexuais no Brasil a partir dos relatos de suas lideranças. Partindo da emergência da "travesti" como categoria identitária, relatamos o surgimento das primeiras organizações, com destaque para suas conexões com as políticas de enfrentamento à epidemia da AIDS. Tratamos também de dois processos de disputa que foram cruciais para a configuração do movimento no Brasil: a luta pela inclusão de travestis no emergente movimento homossexual dos anos 1980-1990, e o embate mais recente em torno dos sentidos e dos usos das categorias "travesti" e "transexual".

Este artículo procura reconstruir, a través de los relatos de sus líderes, una historia del movimiento social de travestis y transexuales en Brasil. A partir de la emergencia de la "travesti" como categoría identitaria, se narra el surgimiento de las primeras organizaciones, destacando sus conexiones con las políticas de combate a la epidemia del SIDA. Se abordan asimismo dos procesos de disputa que fueron cruciales para la configuración de este movimiento en Brasil: la lucha por la inclusión de travestis en el movimiento homosexual emergente de los años 1980-1990, y el debate reciente en torno de los sentidos y usos de las categorías "travesti" y "transexual".

This article the history of the travestis and transexuais social movement in Brazil, based on narratives by its leaders. Starting with the emergence of "travesti" as an identity category, we discuss the emergence of pioneer organizations, and highlight their connections with public policy on the AIDS epidemic. We also explore two disputes which were crucial to the organization of this movement in Brazil: the struggle for the inclusion of travestis in the emerging homosexual movement in 1980 and 1990 decades, and the more recent controversies around the meanings and uses of the categories "travesti" and "transexual".

"We share a sacred secret": gender, domesticity, and containment in Transvestia's histories and letters from crossdressers and their wives.

After WWII in the United States, gender and sexual minorities began to construct social identities in a cold war climate hostile to gender and sexual transgression. The coming of the sexual revolution in the mid-1960s and 1970s unleashed forces that provided opportunities for these groups to demarcate their differences from one another, achieve visibility, and court public favor in a more permissive and tolerant society. In this article, I examine how a cohort of white, heterosexual crossdressers and their wives forged a redeeming social script in ways that seem counterintuitive to the "spirit of the times." The presence of transvestism within the sacred, idealized space of the American home produced tremendous anxiety on the part of these transvestite husbands and especially their wives. To deflect the stigma of sexual deviancy and sooth feelings of insecurity, these couples utilized strategies of containment and embraced the domestic ideal, even well into the sexualized and swinging seventies. Their strategic yet curious retreat into domesticity compels a second look at the consensus, conformity, and containment narratives that once dominated our scholarly imagination of intimate matters during the postwar years. Might current revisionist histories have gone too far in discrediting these potent forces? How do gender and sexual populations beholden to whiteness and notions of respectability fit within the sexual revolutions of postwar America?

Sex research at the borders of gender: transvestites, transsexuals, and Alfred C. Kinsey.

Sex researcher Alfred Kinsey's vision of sexual taxonomy continued to evolve after he published his first landmark volume on human sexuality, and his research into sexual subcultures went beyond his initial studies of homosexuality and prostitution. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he developed a new interest in cross-dressing and cross-gender identification. This article outlines how and why he began to interview transvestites and transsexuals, and places his emerging vision of gendered behavior and gender identity within the scientific theories of his day. Kinsey rejected the prevailing views, preferring instead a behaviorist model of gender. He saw cross-dressing and crossgender identification as male phenomena and used them to speculate about sex differences in the capacity for psychological conditioning. In his usual style, he did not condemn transvestites or transsexuals, but he disapproved of the genital surgery requested by male-to-female transsexuals. It was here that Kinsey hit the limits of his well-known sexual liberalism in which he approved of all sexual variations that did not involve coercion.