Despite being included in Brazil's acronym in the struggle for glbtq rights, transgender people receive little outreach from the more mainstream gay and lesbian groups. There are, however, associations of transgender people in several Brazilian states and cities.

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One program in Rio de Janeiro focuses on the reintegration of transvestites into society through training and employment opportunities.

Emotional Life

The dire political and social situation of transgender people in Brazil could gradually be alleviated if more transgender people qualified as doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. However, in addition to the discrimination that limits their education, most transvestites seem unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain higher education. They seem to believe that to do so would also mean sacrificing the most important years of their lives as beautiful women.

The combined effects of discrimination, humiliation, lack of education, and isolation from mainstream society place enormous emotional strain on Brazil's transgender people, especially those who earn their living as sex workers. They tend to live for the present, in the belief that their beauty will not last long and in the knowledge that prospects for a decent life beyond 30 are extremely limited.

The pressures to succumb to drug abuse and criminality are enormous, but transgender people are also especially vulnerable to contracting AIDS and to falling into cynicism and despair. Avoiding these pitfalls demands remarkable courage and strength of character.

A notably diverse country, Brazil is also home to one of the world's most dynamic glbtq political movements.

Despite social and economic problems, Rio de Janeiro has long been a fun-filled gay and lesbian mecca.

South America's largest metropolis and Brazil's richest city, São Paulo prides itself on a vibrant and diverse glbtq community.

Sex work has long been the last resort of desperate women and girls, but more recently some women--including some lesbians--have been drawn to the profession by a renegade ideology of sexual liberation.

"Transgender" has become an umbrella term representing a political alliance between all gender variant people who do not conform to social norms for typical men and women and who suffer political oppression as a result.

Since the late nineteenth century, transgendered people have advocated legal and social reforms that would ameliorate the kinds of oppression and discrimination they suffer.