Reading the article “Transgender Female Sex Workers’ HIV Knowledge, Experienced Stigma, and Condom Use in the Dominican Republic” by Budhwani et al. (2017) reveals that transgender female sex workers face a variety of challenges in their line of work. The article reveals a great deal about their experiences in the Dominican Republic (DR) and the importance of reaching these populations to educate them and assist them.
The title alone suggests that these individuals may not possess the knowledge to protect themselves against HIV (not to mention other sexually transmitted diseases [STIs]) including through using condoms. The title also suggests that these individuals face stigma; the title does not indicate if the stigma is associated with their roles as sex workers, their status as transgender, or some other element of their experience. However, it becomes clear in the article that the stigma refers to their status as transgender women, with societal norms and institutional discrimination exposing these women to physical and emotional abuse and violence. In studying this population, the authors discovered that many of the participants had very low knowledge of HIV, their condom use was variable depending on partner type, and the participants had experience significant levels of stigma. It appears that many of these individuals’ first sexual experiences were statutory rape, and stigma influenced low rates of condom use and HIV knowledge. These findings suggested that those women who had been highly stigmatized had lower self-confidence and reduced resilience that led to difficulties with negotiating condom use.
These findings suggest that more research is needed to understand the experiences of these women. There are clearly gaps in the HIV knowledge of this population, like other stigmatized populations, to help them protect themselves as well as public health. The authors recommend the revocation of certain laws in DR to help improve conditions for this population.
- Budhwani, H., Hearld, K. R., Hasbun, J., Charow, R., Rosario, S., Tillotson, L., … & Waters, J. (2017). Transgender female sex workers’ HIV knowledge, experienced stigma, and condom use in the Dominican Republic. PloS One, 12(11), e0186457.
