The Stonewall Center presented “Madame Lauraine’s Transsexual Touch,” a video geared toward educating the clients of transsexual prostitutes about HIV, in the Campus Center on Nov. 2.
Viviane Lamaste, coordinator of a Montreal community-based transsexual healthcare project known as CACTUS, and one of the co-creators of the video, discussed the project briefly before it was shown to the audience.
Lamaste said that her organization advised the directors of the video about the issues they felt were relevant to effective HIV education. She said that they eventually decided to aim the video at the clients of prostitutes, who she explained, may need more education than the prostitutes themselves about HIV, risk and transsexuality.
“We were worried about the relevance of HIV education to the values of transsexual culture,” Lamaste said. “We sat down and said, what do we need? We don’t want more education for the girls. We need it for the clients.”
Lamaste also said that the video was structured to be erotic as well as educational. “The video is very explicit,” she said explaining that she felt that this would help both prostitutes and their clients relate to the video’s message. “More than they would to some social worker coming around with a pamphlet.”
Also important in the video was the idea of personal responsibility, Lamaste said. “We have yet to see any sexual materials that actually address this.”
According to a press release about the video, “studies show that people engage in high-risk activities even when they have all the information available to them about the potential consequences. The video asks people to evaluate the risks associated with different sexual practices and to assume responsibility for the activities in which they engage.”
Transsexual identity was also an integral part of the film’s message, Lamaste said.
“Many transsexual activists are trying to get away from the stereotype of the prostitute,” Lamaste said. “[With this video] we are saying that a lot of us are prostitutes and that’s what we do and we’re okay with that.”
The style of the video reflects this, according to Lamaste.
“We didn’t want an arty kind of film,” she remarked. “We wanted to show the way transsexual prostitutes really are, which can be trashy and over the top. That’s why a lot of our clients come to us. We wanted to have that reflected in the film.”
She added that, in her opinion, those who work as prostitutes are not given enough credit for their contributions to transsexual culture.
“Education around transsexuality is part of what transsexual prostitutes do,” she said. “But don’t look to transsexual leaders in America for recognition of that.”
