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Places travesti issues in a 'development' framework
Introduction
Predominant beliefs, in Latin America as elsewhere, make rigid connections between gender and sexuality, holding both as 'natural' and as fixed, rather than socially and culturally acquired. In some settings, such as those where are ideas are largely shaped by Christianity, this connection is also seen as sacred and deviations from it summarily rejected. The sexuality agenda around HIV and AIDS has challenged the rigidity of this connection. But it has done less to shift the belief that sexuality is 'natural', - so that the search for a biological foundation for homosexuality and bisexuality continues. And it has done very little to challenge or question the male/female gender categories that shape the terrain.
Travesti experience, however, defies insertion into fixed male/female categories, or into the categories of sexuality these are taken to imply. Travestis who present themselves as 'females' according to manners, dress and make-up are often assumed to be homosexual, including by other travestis . Embedded in this assumption is sometimes a further one: that travestis are travestis because this offers one way of being gay. But travestis may straightforwardly identify with neither homosexuality nor heterosexuality. Some, for example, may wear women's clothes primarily for aesthetic reasons - because it feels good. Many travesti , sex workers and others, are involved in heterosexual emotional and sexual relationships, may have female partners and children, and may continue to perform 'active' penetration beyond sex work situations - although they may also keep these relationships private.
For many travestis it is gender, their own gender, which is the primary issue - and not their sexuality. Sexual identity may, however, offer a route to exploring gender identity. Indeed, as Cáceres and Rosasco's (2000) interviews with travestis reveal, young people may identify with homosexuality not so much because of a fixed sexuality, but because it offers an explanation for their difference. And yet transgender identities, which defy gender binaries, have a long history all over the world (Box 1 (See PDF) ). Many of these identities continue to have a contemporary presence, and other identities have also emerged. All these realities, in addition to the great number of alternative identities from the past identified worldwide, clearly demonstrate how poorly fitting...