"Mulher Mulher e "Outras Mulheres": gênero e homossexualidade(s) no Programa de Saúde da Família

Abstract

This thesis is about gender, sexuality, and its connections with Public Health. The research aimed to understand, from the discourse of health professionals working for the Family Health Program of Recife, aspects that favours or make it difficult for women with homoerotic practices to approach health services. Interviews with 16 professionals, including medical doctors, nurses and "care provider" and participant observation at one family health service, were used in data collection. The results suggest a model of service that prioritizes the reciprocal relationship with users (man and women) but at the same time direct their actions rather to the female public. Their statements indicate conceptions of gender, marital and sexual orientation which corroborate the representation that every women is, primarily, straight and destined for reproduction and motherhood. The assumption that all female users are straight contributes to a lower visibility of homosexual women, making them visible only when, in their appearance, they have characteristics assigned to the opposite gender. The supposed masculinity of homosexual women reflects on the quality of attention they receive and places them at a secondary level, with minimization of their claims and the preponderance of the notion of invulnerability regarding the transmission of disease through sexual practices