We had our one year workshop last week. It consisted of two and half days of meetings, and trainings, varying from themes such as behavior change, to working with sex workers.
One of the sessions which struck me as the most interesting was the workshop on diversity of sexuality. We talked about GBLTTTI (formerly known as GBLT). I´ll break it down for those of you less versed. G is for Gay, men who exclusively have relations with other men. B is for Bi, which is someone who has sexual relations with both male and female, L is for Lesbian, women who exclusively have relations with other women. The first T is for transsexual, which is an individual who self identifies as the gender opposite of their biology but still maintains their biological parts, aka a female who still has all her reproductive organs and breasts but 24 hours a day identifies as a male. The second T is for transvestite, which is someone biologically of one gender but identifies depending on the setting as the other gender in periods less then 24 hours a day daily. For example a male who when in the house and at work dresses and identifies as male, but when she is with her friends in a more comfortable setting will dress and identify as a female. The last T is for transgender which is where an individual has had one or more operations to remove or add parts from one gender to align themselves more with the gender in which they identify. ¨I¨ is for intersex, or individuals born with reproductive organs of both genders (formerly known as hermaphrodites).
These concepts are misunderstood in the USA, let alone taught here in Nicaragua. Many individuals who are of a non-heterosexual sexuality are often pinned as being sex workers and their reputations in the communities are very negative. The main factor for this reputation is discrimination (duh). These individuals try studying, or applying for jobs and are almost always rejected. Therefore many individuals have low education levels, low self esteem, and no work. Because of these factors amongst others many are forced into becoming sex workers for lack of options.
Another ¨category¨ of sexuality was presented to us. HSH hombres que tengan relaciones sexuales con Hombres, or men who have sex with men. Here this is not considered gay, I´ll explain.
Here if a man is ¨giving¨ he is maintaining the role of a man ¨aka insertion¨ while as the person receiving is assuming the role of the woman therefore is the ¨gay¨ person so to speak. It is almost impossible gather numbers of people who fall into one of the above categories, specifically the ones which can be more hidden such as gay lesbian and HSH. Yet in the information presented to us we were given a case study town, in which the numbers of HSH far out numbered any other GBLTTTI.
Now you might be wondering, wow Hazel way too graphic, or Big Deal but this is all quite relevant to my work. If the culture here is so inflexible as to have men having sex with men but aren´t gay, or makes sexuality so tabooed as to be something no one can talk about in contexts other than abstinence, can we expect people to use the information given to them when we teach about per se HIV, or STDS or Pregnancy? (Ok I´m not trying to say the HIV is gay issues ok so don´t even go there! I’m trying to connect lack of personal sexual understanding to healthy sexual practices)


I was speaking with one of my counterparts about GBLTTTI upon returning to my site and she impressed me with her openness and willingness to learn (She always is impressing me). She asked many pertinent questions and didn’t judge me on my opinions which very likely are different than anything she´d heard before (aka people are born wired one way; this all being something out of our control). I think that the overall population here may be much more receptive and open to the information than I´d expect. While this theme isn´t one of my direct work objectives, we´ll see how and if I can incorporate it into my work.