They seem to believe that to do so would also mean sacrificing the most important years of their lives as beautiful women. However, in addition to the discrimination that limits their education, most transvestites seem unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to obtain higher education.
The dire political and social situation of transgender people in Brazil could gradually be alleviated if more transgender people qualified as doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. Within these mixed groups, transsexuals tend to distinguish themselves from transvestites, hence the increasing use of the term “GLBTT”–Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transvestite, and Transsexual. There are relatively few activist groups in Brazil that encompass the whole range of alternative sexualities and genders. Transgender people have been less successful than gay men and lesbians in gaining any form of public acceptance and legal rights. Transgender political activism in Brazil only began in the 1990s, as a result of the AIDS epidemic, in contrast to gay and lesbian mobilization for equal rights which dates back to the 1970s.
