More than 100 Young
Transvestites Work The
Streets of Downtown San
José
More than 100
adolescents aged between
15 and 17 years of age
apply the oldest trade
in the downtown streets
of San José's Barrio
Amón, a few blocks north
of the Avenida Central
or boulevard.
With tight skirts
revealing long legs and
breasts practically
hanging out these young
prostitutes serve up to
20 or more customers in
a night starting at
8:00pm, Friday, Saturday
and Sunday nights being
the busiest.
From as little as ¢5.000
colones (us$9.70), the
young prostitutes
handing out at the
corner in the area of
the INS building, the
Parque Nacional and the
Asamblea Legislativa,
these young prostitutes
are ready to please
customers who for the
most part arrive in
their cars.
However, these young
prostitutes are not
women, but rather a part
of some 400
transvestites who work
the streets of San José.
Many of the adult
transvestites complain
that the adolescents are
taking business away
from them.
The presence of
transvestite minors on
offering sexual favours
on the streets can be
confirmed by Isidro
Garro Rodríguez, sub
chief of the Policía
Municipal, who assures
that they constantly are
detained them during
police raids of the
streets.
"Many of them we taken
home to their families
following their
detention much to the
surprise of their
parents, while others
know full well what
their children are
doing", said Rodríguez.
The minors allege that
their are earning an
honest living and are
back on the streets the
day following their
detention, again dressed
as women and "pulseándola"
(hustling).
Some tell authorities
that they have been
living on the streets
since they were 12 years
old, being thrown out of
the house by their
parents and found that
prostitution was one way
to make a living.
"The story is pretty
much the same,
adolescents thrown out
of the house, rejected
and even violated", said
Gerardo Mairena
Rodríguez, president of
the Fundación Michael,
who helps minors working
the streets.
Mairena added that in
some cases, young
transvestites are
working as strip dancers
in downtown clubs rather
than the streets and
that his association is
working with authorities
to remove them from that
environment.
According to Mairena
clients seeking young
male prostitutes include
pedophiles and married
men who abuse these
young boys and then
abandon them.
Mairena says that there
is a lack of social
programs to avoid the
minors form being thrown
out of the house and is
asking fro the
participation of the
Ministerio de Educación
Pública and religious
groups to take a role.
According to Carlos
Alfaro, president of the
Movimiento Costarricense
de Lucha Contra el V.I.H,
given the high number of
transvestites on the
streets the only program
to control AIDS within
the group is his private
organization that
frequently visits the
streets talking to the
young transvestites,
offering advice on how
to avoid being infected
with HIV virus and
handing out condoms.
"The government is not
providing any support
for this sector of the
population.
Transvestites are
invisible for the
majority of the
authorities and thus can
never control the spread
of AIDS within this
group", said Alfaro.
Alfaro added that there
is no exact number of
the number of young
transvestites due to
lack of reports and
government involvement,
but it is high and based
on his work the number
of carriers of HIV is
high.
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