Introduction

One of the social transformations that has been discussed a lot nowadays is the phenomenon of demographic inversion. This happens because, along the last decades, there have been express changes in the age pyramid of many countries, including Brazil. Such change is characterized by a narrowing at the base of the age pyramid, which corresponds to the youngest population, and a broadening of the pyramid top, which demonstrates the aging of the population (^{De Lima & Konrad, 2020}).

In this way, studies from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (^{Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística;IBGE, 2019a}) point out that the Brazilian population reached 208.5 million in 2018, out of which 15.4% were 60 years of age or older (^{IBGE, 2019b}). That scenario is a result of various factors, such as the significant advances in medicine and technology, which promote aging in a healthier way and with better life quality (^{Tavares et al., 2019}).

Considering that social and historical transformations imply changes in social relations, in a way that the new behaviors can appear or be revised, groups and topics can gain more visibility, and new spaces are established (^{Santos & Da Silva, 2021}), such as the case of elderly people in Brazil. Within this scenario, the increase in the population’s life expectancy causes a challenged to be overcome. As ^{Schneider and Irigaray (2008}) state, it is necessary to understand elderly people in various dimensions: those related to biological and medical aspects, and those concerning social and cultural elements.

Furthermore, ^{De Macedo (2010}) describes that it is important to understand that elderly people are not a homogeneous group, since old age is reached differently by each individual. That happens because the aging process is seen in different ways: it depends on the social-historical and cultural contexts where elderly people are situated, even though some changes are natural and general to everyone (^{Araújo & Carlos, 2018}).

However, it is noticeable that the notion of old age is associated with taboos, stigmata, prejudice, and social stereotypes (^{Jesus et al., 2019}). ^{Barroso et al. (2019}) describe that the old age is faced as a problem, mainly for being linked to something unfortunate and stereotypes, marked by lacks, losses, and frailty.

Elderly neglect is an urgent factor to be addressed, especially nowadays, within the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is a disease is caused by a novel coronavirus, which was first detected in China in December 2019 (^{Faro et al., 2020}). It can spread among people in a such serious way that, according to the ^{World Health Organization (2020)}, it has become one of the biggest public health problems of the last decades, reaching practically the whole world. Even though it is a recent phenomenon, COVID-19 studies indicate that there is a link between the patients’ age and their comorbidities, so elderly people are more at risk of having unfavorable clinical outcomes such as hospitalization, intensive care, and death (^{Abate et al., 2020}).

Within that scenario, ^{Hammerschmidt and Santana (2020}) indicate that society should pay special attention to the elderly, mainly because they present changes due to senescence and senility. Besides the possible physical impacts on their body, elderly people -considered as a high-risk group for COVID-19- can also have their mental health affected since, as ^{Sher (2020}) points out, that group might fear and have doubts concerning the pandemic, developing or intensifying mental disorders. Therefore, reflecting and working on the elderly’s life experience is essential, especially during the pandemic.

^{Romero et al. (2021}) point out that issues related to the aging process, such as social distancing, invisibility, mourning, and abandonment, might strongly reverberate during the pandemic. Those authors concluded in their studies that distancing from family and friends caused a frequent feeling of loneliness to half of the elderly, mainly to the female elderly population. Moreover, concerning sexuality and gender issues, ^{Correia et al. (2020}) states that the health and social crisis stemming from COVID-19 pandemic aggravated the mechanisms that reinforce the social separation of the elderly who deviate from the social standard, mainly those who live in poverty and indigence.

Given these facts, it is observed that sexuality is one of the important aspects of the old age which deserves particular attention. Elderly people’s sexuality is associated with taboos and social stigmata since -as ^{Granadillo et al. (2015}) point out- changes that happen to those subjects lead to the belief that they are asexual beings. Nevertheless, also according to the aforementioned authors, like in other life stages, the dimension of pleasure with physical contact, communication, dignity, and emotional security is also present at the old age. Furthermore, it is essential to highlight that the old age is not related to incapacity, vulnerability, dependance, and the absence of social and sexual experiences (^{Araújo et al., 2016}; ^{Santos et al., 2017}).

The sexuality dimension goes beyond the sexual intercourse. It comprises feelings, perceptions, beliefs, values, and actions of the elderly person, also including aspects like affection, care, intimacy, and sexual practice (^{Da Silva et al., 2020}). Moreover, sexuality is an experience that can promote not only physical and mental welfare but also healthy interpersonal relations, among others (^{Jesus et al., 2019}).

Thus, the topic of sexuality has been on the last decades’ agenda in the research field, aiming at understanding and elucidating aspects of such a stigmatized issue. However, many studies are based on a standardized logic which, according to ^{Henning (2017}), hides the living -by the elderly- of sexualities that do not fit in the socially imposed standard.

That happens because LGBT individuals suffer their whole life, including at their old age, due to their sexuality. Therefore, it is necessary to reflect upon the aging process in this group. ^{Crenitte et al. (2019)} pointed out that LGBT old age is still invisible in society, both in terms of LGBT militancy and activist movements for the rights of the elderly. Thus, there is a feeling of misplacement that can lead LGBT elderly people to loneliness, considering that their existence is excluded or neglected in the various social places in which they live.

One of the places occupied by elderly people is prostitution. Thus, the present study considers that it is important to understand the way in which sex workers think about LGBT old age, since the topic of sexuality has reached the universe of that service. Generally, sex workers’ activities consist of commercial sexual services, including pleasure, fantasies, or sex, provided by a direct agreement with the client and with questionable values (^{Da Silva et al., 2010}). The understanding of prostitution is still complex and stigmatized, since the huge quantity of taboos on the issue are not only about moral factors but also about social and political ones (^{Leal et al., 2017}). According to these authors, the work environment of sex workers can make women more vulnerable because of the occurrence of different types of violence, poor infrastructure conditions, sexual exploitation, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Although prostitution is directly associated to women, it is evident that part of said population is composed of men, who face social difficulties sometimes different from the ones that female prostitutes face. For instance, ^{Lopes et al. (2019}) pointed out that most studies on male sex workers do not show the presence of pimps, a very common figure involved in the prostitution of women and transvestites. Moreover, the physical and aesthetic changes stemming from aging are other important aspects for those workers (^{Lopes et al. (2019}), so that it is necessary to identify how they see aging process.

Despite that service was mainly offered in a faceto-face setting, sex workers started to occupy new workspaces: the digital networks. The sex industry by means of virtual technologies is characterized by online commerce via webcam, selling of photos and videos, advertisements, marketing, and work management to facilitate the service and organize the off-line dates (^{Bond et al., 2019}; ^{Griffiths et al., 2016}). Such strategy can be used in the context of COVID19 pandemic, as already mentioned, since one of the measures is social distancing, which involves avoiding events that draw large crowds and crowded places (^{Faro et al., 2020}).

Considering those aspects, the present research seeks to study aspects of LGBT old age social dimension according to the beliefs and perceptions of sex workers in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. To that end, the Theory of the Social Representations (TSR), developed by Serge Moscovici, is considered as an effective method to understand such elements. The TSR addresses a concept and the way in which it is placed in the social thought, its dynamics and diversity. Social representations are symbolic elements expressed by individuals through words and gestures. In this way, people express their thoughts, how they understand a situation, and form an opinion about a fact or object (^{Franco, 2004}). Therefore, the TRS can be understood as a strategy to learn about the commonsense concerning a given topic, which allows the analysis of representations on such topic (^{Moscovici, 2012}). Considering this theoretical approach, the present study aims to identify and analyze the social representations of LGBT old age for male sex workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and how these issues develop in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method

This was a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive, and cross-sectional study. A non-probability convenience sampling was used. The study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Universidade Federal do Piauí (report No. 1.755.790). The subjects received a free and informed consent form (FICF) which explained them the aims, nature, risks, and implications of the study; the guaranteed confidentiality and security of data collection; the voluntary nature of their participation; and their right to withdraw at any time. In addition, the instruments used were evaluated by two expert judges.

Participants

Twenty (20) adults aged 18 years or older living in different Brazilian regions participated in the study. Fifty percent (50%) of the participants were men and the other half were women, all of them cisgender and aged between 18 and 48. Below there is a table with other sociodemographic data of the participants to characterize them in a clearer way (see Table 1).

Table 1 Participant data 

Note: This table shows the elements of the participants’ sociodemographic data.

Results

The general corpus consisted of 20 texts divided into 43 text segments (TS), which accounted for 75%. The analyzed content was categorized into three classes: Class 1 (33.3%), Class 2 (26.7%), and Class 3 (40%) (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.  Categories identified by the IRaMuTeQ analysis 

As presented in the Figure 1, the three classes were divided into two branches (A and B). The subcorpus A, named «LGBT elderly people in society,» was made up of Class 1 («Social understanding of the topic LGBT old age») and Class 2 («Stigma of genders and sexual orientations»), which described the way individuals perceived LGBT old age within society, mainly in the social space related to prostitution.

Meanwhile, the sub-corpus B, «Difficulties faced by LGBT people,» was composed of Class 3 («Physical transformations and their accompanying obstacles»), which portrayed people’s negative perception of body changes, as well as prejudices experienced by LGBT people due to ageism until their old age.

For better visualization of the classes, a dendrogram was organized. It included a list ofwords from each class, which were obtained from the chisquare test. In that test, evocations that present similar words and different vocabulary emerged. Each class resulting from the descending hierarchical classification were described, operationalized, and exemplified (see Figure 2).

Figure 2.  Descending hierarchical classification extracted from IRaMuTeQ 

Class 1: Social understanding of the topic LGBT old age

This class corresponded to 33.33% of the total corpus, and thus it was the second biggest class of the analysis. The word «topic» (χ² = 10.91) was the only meaningful term of this class. Most participants in this group were women, who reported recognizing the current topic of debate more frequently than their male counterparts. Besides that, another data worth highlighting is the fact that the participants who earned at most the minimum wage stated that they did not have an opinion on the issue. Within this scenario, it was noticed that discourses were inconsistent in this class, since some people considered that the topic had gained more space in the social debate and others reported that they did not know much about the subject.

Class 2: Stigma of genders and sexual orientations

This class consisted of 26.7% of the total corpus and accounted for the highest percentage of the dendrogram. In its composition, the word «very» had the highest χ² (equivalent to 8.18) and was used by the participants to highlight the difficulties of LGBT aging. Moreover, they pointed out, in some excerpts, the lack of expectations of getting old by nonheterosexual individuals. The class also included the word «woman» (χ² = 6.52) because, according to the participants, it is harder for women to get old, mainly if they are engaged in prostitution. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that gender difference was evidenced in the interviews, since it was referenced by both male and female participants. The third word of this class was the intensifier «more» (χ² = 4.77) through which, once again, individuals highlighted the obstacles and rejection suffered by LGBT people as they get old. It is important to point out that, while the female participants emphasized the rejection suffered by LGBT elderly women, especially the ones who work as prostitutes, the male participants stressed the difficulty in acknowledging to others that they were LGBT, showing that people of the community who get old are even more invisible.

Class 3: Physical transformations and their accompanying obstacles

This class included 40% of the total corpus of the text segments, thus being the most significant one. The first word of this class was the adverb «besides» (χ² = 8.18), which describes different obstacles that accompany LGBT people’s aging. It is essential to point out that the participants who mentioned that word in this class are all LGBT. They highlighted the vulnerability of LGBT aging especially among sex workers because they are very vulnerable to STDs, bad-natured people, and social prejudice. The second word of this class was the term «change» (χ² = 5.62) through which the participants, mostly men, highlighted that people’s physical changes may intensify the stigma they suffer in the social environment and relate the process of «getting old» with a possible loss of friendship, affection, and -in the case of rent boys- clients. Therefore, this class showed the problems that would appear or become worse in the life of LGBT people as they get old.

Discussion

Considering what has been stated so far with the guiding questions of this study -i.e., «What do you understand by LGBT old age?» and «What particular difficulties do you believe that can be found at LGBT sex workers aging?»- the reading and analysis of the sex workers’ interviews resulted in two sub-corpora in the dendrogram, which in turn were composed of three classes that describe the current debate on LGBT old age and the obstacles experienced by LGBT elderly people. Thus, it is appropriate to outline some aspects mentioned by the participants during the interviews. Moreover, it is also important to mention that fictional names were used in the discourses to protect the privacy and confidentiality of the participants.

Class 1: Social understanding of the topic LGBT old age

Class 1 evidenced sex workers’ notion of the debate on LGBT old age in society. However, sex workers’ discourses were inconsistent in this class: on the one hand, some of them stated that it is a widely discussed topic nowadays but, on the other hand, others mentioned that it is still a silent topic.

Those two facets demonstrate that the understanding of LGBT old age is not the same for everyone because, according to ^{Silva et al. (2020}), the process of getting old depends on each individual and is noticed not only from biological factors but also from social and cultural aspects. Therefore, it cannot be confirmed that there is a homogeneous and uniform understanding or notion of old age and the processes involved, but it will be recognized -or not- in people’s contact with the topic.

Within this scenario, there are some markers that can elucidate the possible dichotomy presented above. Concerning the visibility of this topic, it must be considered that, although the LGBT community still suffers a lot of violence and discrimination in society, the LGBT agenda has reached social spaces which were previously denied to them. Thus, at present, the agendas of the LGBT movement have gained greater visibility, not only in the legislative field but also in the emergence of fronts in the national territory (Simões & ^{Facchini, 2009}).

Furthermore, the LGBT elderly population have witnessed some LGBT rights movement achievements, although they are still far from full equity and fairness. In addition, the elderly population is continuously growing worldwide and, as ^{Fonseca et al. (2020}) describe, the more the global elderly population increases, the more the LGBT elderly population grows. Thus, it is noticeable that the debate on this topic has currently gained ground, as described in the discourses of some of the interviewees:

«It is something natural. Like all people, they also age, and there is more and more talk about this topic» (Lara, 27 years old).

«It is normal. Recently, there has been more talk about LGBT old age» (Jamile, 30 years old).

Therefore, discussions on LGBT old age have been highlighted in some social dimensions, including the field of research, where researchers and scholars of different fields of knowledge have become interested in sexuality (^{Araújo & Silva, 2020}). Nevertheless, there are some markers that may hamper a broader discussion on this topic in society. For instance, in the aforementioned field of research, although more studies have focused on the topic, the amount related to LGBT people has been very low (^{Araújo & Silva, 2020}).

^{Kimmel et al. (2015}) point out that many geropsychology studies are based on the idea that almost all elderly people are heterosexual, and that the ones who are not heterosexual are too old to have another sexual orientation. Furthermore, a more indepth debate on LGBT old age is commonly at risk to become invisible and, consequently, that group may not be recognized in the social environment.

^{Salgado et al. (2017}) confirm that current studies demonstrate that LGBT old age is still susceptible to the influence of social stereotypes. That stigma affects the lives of many elderly people, so it is crucial to highlight that today’s cohort of LGBT elderly people -who were born or grew up during the Great Depression or World War II- are part of silent generations who grew up in a period in which homoaffective relationships were criminalized, punished, and stigmatized, causing the elderly of this group to isolate in various situations (^{Fredriksen- Goldsen et al., 2015}).

Therefore, the different life areas of these individuals are marked, directly or indirectly, by discrimination and LGBTphobia, so that many obstacles may hamper the affective experience of their sexuality. It is worth considering that mostly women claimed that they had more knowledge of the topic than men. Some elements that may confirm this issue are the fact that women’s social movements have made significant progress -even though there is still much struggle ahead- in the debate about their rights, their bodies, their desires in the current patriarchal society, while men’s identity, especially the subjectivity related to their affections and behaviors, has been scarcely debated. As ^{Rosostolato (2018}) points out, people’s idea of manliness is related to the bitterness and inflexibility of rigid masculinity, which rejects affection. Therefore, through time, an ideal model of men was designed. In this model, boys, since their early age, must follow rules such as: not to cry, not to demonstrate feelings or weaknesses, and separate from femininity as much as possible (^{Mesquita & Corrêa, 2021}). Thus, the debate on sexual intimacy, especially regarding those people who do not follow the cisgender and heteronormative standard, faces some obstacles.

Concerning the abovementioned, it is worth mentioning that, even with the advances in this topic, there are still stereotypes about sexuality in old age which perpetuate the notion that the elderly do not have sexuality, limiting the debate on such an important dimension of old age.

Stereotyping old age is frequently carried out in an automatic, unconscious way by individuals, who usually have no time to learn about LGBT, since they are immersed in the socioeconomic inequalities that afflict their countries. Indeed, another data worth highlighting is the fact that some of the participants who earned less than the minimum wage stated that they did not have an opinion on the topic. Besides that, when reflecting on the sex workers’ LGBT old age, the participants in this class mentioned difficulties in working in that field, as shown in the excerpts:

«(...) it is not a long-life job because of physical issues» (Fiona, 27 years old).

«There is loss of conditions to continue in the profession» (Eliza, 30 years old).

Within this scenario, discussing about LGBT old age -and, in this case, especially considering the sex workers- is essential in current days, even more in the COVID-19 pandemic. According to ^{Romero et al. (2021}) there is evidence of the high and unequal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the life of Brazilian old people in different scopes such as health, income and care. Also, according to these authors, an example of that impact is the financial fragility of low-income elderly in the pandemic, who experienced a significant economic reduction.

Therefore, taking into account that prostitution is often the only income of those who offer that service, the problem got even worse during the pandemic, as social isolation was the most effective way to protect people from the novel virus. The preventive measures established by the governments ended up affecting a vulnerable category, such as the one whose members work in the sexual services field, causing in them insecurity, and fear of having their job offers reduced, getting sick, and having to be isolated (^{Passos & Almeida-Santos, 2020}). Moreover, the reduction in the elderly’s income and the difficulties faced by them even before the pandemic are elements that increased the necessity of reflecting on LGBT old age, especially LGBT elderly people who work as sex workers.

Thus, this class evidences important aspects for the understanding of LGBT old age, once it is possible to observe a discussion process of this topic in society, aimed at recognizing its complexities and naturalizing it, as it should be done, although the stigma and the invisibility still persist in the lives of the subjects of that group. In addition, the difficulties mentioned about the sex workers’ LGBT old age further highlight the urgency of discussing such an important topic in the social sphere.

Class 2: Stigma of genders and sexual orientations

This class describes important obstacles in the participants’ conception of the aging process when the person is LGBT and a sex worker in the society as a whole, as well as in the prostitution environment. The first obstacle is the natural aging process itself, which is marked by stigmatized views. This is confirmed by ^{Dátilo and Cordeiro (2015}), who claim that the society massively glorifies the young age, the new and the modern; concomitantly, it seeks to distance itself from the arrival of old age, thus contributing to the idea that the aging process is a hard and often denied task.

Furthermore, when thinking about Western societies, characterized by individualism, narcissism, and exhibitionism, aging is composed of negative aspects since «getting old» and all the dimensions of this process are undesirable, excluded, stigmatized, while youth is intensely valued (^{Moreira & Nogueira, 2008}). These aspects are evident in the discourse of some participants, such as:

«Youth is overvalued in every profession, mainly in those that involve sex. Because of that, I think that the «life span» in sexrelated professions becomes shorter than in other ones. This situation makes its rise and fall very close together» (Cleide, 24 years old).

«In our current society, if it is already hard to be accepted at a young age, let alone at an older age, it is even harder to live with prejudice» (Marcos, 19 years old).

Therefore, it can be noticed that the negative associations about old age have been faced as an undesirable stage not only in the present but also over generations across centuries. It is interesting to highlight that the conceptions of old age are the result of social and temporal constructions made by a society with specific values and principles associated with different aspects. In this sense, the term «life span» mentioned by one of the participants is very instigating, since the current society is marked by a capitalist logic that, according to ^{Schneider and Irigaray (2008}), values the consumption on which the new must be glorified because, if it is not, there is not production and storage of capital.

Second, it is important to highlight that this class is characterized by the use of intensifiers showing that, from the sex workers’ point of view, the aging process is even harder when there are intersections of gender and orientation. Gender allows understanding the role played by subjects facing economic, political, and social inequalities. Thus, it does not embrace only biological aspects but is constructed by means of social relations, i.e., relations between people and between people and nature (^{Santos & Buarque, 2002}).

Therefore, regarding the role of men and women (the two genders addressed in this study but not the only two that exist), ^{Tabak (1983}) describes that in Brazil, as in other countries, women have been the target of prejudice, set by stereotyped patterns of behavior which place them at a disadvantage in various spaces of society. Considering these aspects, in the aging of women, although there are positive aspects, the losses felt in their bodies in relation to aesthetics, health, and physical decline promote feelings of frailty and abandonment (^{Jorge, 2005}). In the field of prostitution, these elements are evident in the discourse of some of the interviewees:

«Men still suffer less prejudice than women who work in the field of sex services» (Marcos, 19 years old).

«(...) I’ve seen, in night clubs, some women who seemed to be older than 60 years old, and their work was undervalued because of that» (Vera, 22 years old).

In those excerpts, it can be noticed that as women get older, they start being overlooked, especially in the affective and sexual dimensions. The vision in relation to women’s body is strongly related to a perfect, immortal, sensual ideal (^{Novaes & De Vilhena 2003}) so that, as these bodies age, they begin to disassociate themselves from the social imaginary of beauty. The rejection suffered by old women, in the general scope and in prostitution, was a recurring aspect in the discourse of some participants of the study. In relation to the issue of sexual orientation, the participants reported that being LGBT can also be an obstacle in the subject’s life due to society’s prejudice. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transvestite, transexual, or transgender (^{Facchini & França, 2009}). In this scenario, ^{Salgado et al. (2017}) point out that this community faces a series of violence, boosted by the historical prejudice from society. Therefore, this intolerance reaches the emotional and behavioral dimensions, in addition to the ideological and institutional aspects, being then characterized as a mechanism to create and reproduce a logic of difference, which excludes and dominates certain people.

That scenario is not different when considering LGBT old people, just as ^{Santos et al. (2018}) highlight that the cohort of LGBT old people today had a young age characterized by denial and repression of their sexual orientation and gender identity that were different from the heteronormative logic. It could be noted, in the participants’ discourse, that LGBTphobia accompany the subjects throughout their lives. However, it is important to mention that while many women emphasized the rejection they suffer when they get older, such as in «Many of us can’t get old.

I think it’s a bit of luck, for aging makes women more commonly rejected and disposable» (Tábata, 29 years old), a great number of men pointed out the difficulty in «admitting» that they are LGBT to the society. For example:

«Nowadays, it is a little hard to be accepted because we don’t see many older LGBT; it’s something uncommon in our society» (Marcos, 19 years old).

«Today, fewer LGBT end up alone, but it was much harder to admit you were an LGBT» (José, 22 years old).

Some elements that can elucidate these aspects, like the fact that LGBT women -mainly lesbians- are frequently fetishized by patriarchy and social institutions such as the media. On this matter, ^{Lima et al. (2017}) describe those lesbian characters were conceived in a context of heteronormativity and were often fetishized. Meanwhile, there is a social convention of how a man should behave, who he should like, etc. ^{Welzer-Lang (2001}) describes that, throughout their lives, younger men are corrected by older men, who try to educate them towards a supposed virility. The author also point out that the identity of «being a man» is criticized for valuing a domination of this gender, mainly over women and other genders diverging from the heteronormative standard.

The intention is not to compare the impact of oppression on people’s lives but to confirm that different problems may affect the individuals of the LGBT community until they reach old age, when the LGBT elderly person is often unrecognized or unnoticed. Thus, according to sex workers, being LGBT is an obstacle to the existence of people, who lose their existence within the community as they get old (if they can age at all). Thus, in a society marked by discrimination, ranging from direct violence to manifestations of intolerance in different social spaces (^{Salgado et al., 2017}), the invisibility suffered by LGBT elderly people feed their suffering, subjective victimization, and isolation (^{Carlos et al., 2018}).

Class 3: Physical transformations and their accompanying obstacles

This class describes more specifically the difficulties in the LGBT aging process among sex workers. In this regard, the first aspect mentioned by the participants was the fact that physical changes make the elderly less interesting and attractive to the clients and to other people with whom they have affective and sexual relationships.

Meanwhile, the aesthetic value of young and supposedly virile bodies is present in the prostitution context. It is interesting to mention that men were the ones who highlighted this topic the most when talking about aesthetic changes. One of the reasons is the fact that, in the field of prostitution, male bodies -which are exhibited as goods for sale- have strong abdomens, biceps, thighs and legs; show shredded bodies; are naked or wear small clothes; aim at calling attention to their chests, butts, and mainly their penis. These are important elements in the various spaces where these subjects develop their professional activities (^{Lopes et al., 2019}).

Thus, in the social understanding of old age in men, the aging process runs in opposite direction to that of virility. That happens because, in the present day, old age is seen as a problem, mainly because it is related to something inconvenient, stereotyped, characterized by lack, losses, and frailties (^{Barroso et al., 2019}). As a result, many of the negative beliefs related to elderly people are characterized by ideas of illness, impotence, sexual disinterest, ugliness, mental decline, incompetence, isolation, among others (^{Vieira & Lima, 2015}). Also, according to these authors, the conception of incompetence or frailty may reach different dimensions of the representations of the elderly, among which are the representations of themselves and their interpersonal relationships.

In this conception, it can observe that the representations of sex workers show a negative impact in the relationship between physical changes and interpersonal relationships, since -according to them- there may be a considerable loss of clients and partners, thus reducing the social circle of the elderly. These aspects can be identified in some excerpts:

«It’s something natural but, in the case of sex workers, physical changes can cause the loss of clients» (Teodoro, 18 years old).

«Those people will suffer prejudice both in their feelings (they will have less chances to love because they will generally connect with people similar to them, who have also been suffering since they were children) and from other people. Besides that, their own physical changes are difficulties; they will have fewer interactions so many will end up without friends» (João, 48 years old).

Therefore, it is interesting to think that, in an environment where body worship is an essential tool in relationships, the aging of the social actors -which social imaginary refers to the loss of much of the body’s appearance, the feeling towards that situation and the changes that happens to everyone, such as wrinkling, shrinking, hair graying (^{Minayo & Coimbra Jr., 2002})- may be an obstacle in the life of the elderly. Moreover, it is worth highlighting that the impact of these body transformations may affect not only the psychological and emotional aspects but also the financial ones, as described in the following excerpts:

«Body weakening and financial instability occur due to a reduced interest shown by the clients, in addition to the prejudice against age» (Pietro, 30 years old).

«They have bills to pay, and they often have difficulties finding clients who will pay for their services» (Rômulo, 21 years old).

Within this situation, it can be observed that physical changes -commonly associated with the idea of losing some abilities- are a factor to consider when it comes to the living conditions of sex workers since, as they age, they may have significant income losses if they do not have financial stability. This is a very fundamental dimension in old age, even more in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which -according to the study by ^{Romero et al. (2021})- there was a reduction in almost half of the elderly’s household income, and a financial reduction of those who did not have a formal job. In addition, in the participants’ discourse, it can be noted the vulnerability of becoming infected by any STI (sexually transmitted infection) throughout life:

«People might get an STI if they did not prevent it throughout life» (Breno, 27 years old).

«They may have contact with people whose personality and intentions are unknown and there is risk of exposure to STIs» (Pietro, 30 years old).

Although STIs are not exclusive to sex workers, it is essential to consider that they are vulnerable to STIs due to risk factors such as multiple partners, low adherence to condom use, and alcohol and illicit drug abuse (^{Sequeira et al., 2020}). In addition, there is still prejudice from society, which frequently associates sex workers with STIs. For example, ^{Leal et al. (2017}) describe that many female sex workers are blamed by society for spreading STIs due to their services, which are on the outskirts of social habits.

It is worth considering that the stigma around STIs does not occur only in the present day: it dates back to decades and involves various factors such as sexuality. For example, as for HIV/AIDS, society builds a superficial and biased relationship between the virus and the homosexual population. In that regard, ^{Bessa (1997}) points that the biomedical model understood homosexuality as something promiscuous and that, therefore, they were more susceptible to becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. Moreover, it is crucial to point out that the participants presented in this class were all LGBT, mostly men, since the stigma associated with that community and STIs, such as HIV/AIDS remain today, although at a lower level.

When thinking about STIs, such as HIV/AIDS, and their prevalence in certain social groups, it is essential to understand various factors not only of biomedical nature, but also from other dimensions of individual’s life; with regard of sex workers, ^{Almeida et al. (2017}) say it is important to consider the socioeconomic context of these people. Therefore, the purpose of this research is neither to promote stereotypes about sex workers’ practices nor romanticize STIs: it is to highlight that this is a concern among the study participants and deserves a deeper understanding in the different fields of study, since it involves a complexity of associated factors and stigma.

Final Remarks

With what has been exposed, it is noticeable that the participants relate LGBT aging and old age to a series of difficulties due to prejudice and social stigma, in addition to the current socioeconomic inequalities. It can also be noted that, when cuts in sexual orientation and gender occur, the difficulties of LGBT aging increase even more, as shown by the participants’ discourses. Moreover, another important data is the vulnerability of sex workers as they age caused by the risk of exposure to bad-natured people, prejudice -which is a triple prejudice because of their age, sexual orientation, and job- and STDs.

Another aspect is that the debate on LGBT old age in society, even though it has increased in the last decades, is not a homogeneous knowledge for all the groups of that population. As observed, part of this situation arises from the taboo that still exists around this topic, as well as the socioeconomic inequality in the country, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, thinking about LGBT aging and, in this case, about elderly people who are sex workers within the pandemic scenario is essential, since the pandemic increased or evidenced even more the social contrasts in the country and in the world.

It is worth mentioning that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on and affected all social environments, including the conduction of this study.

Considering that social distancing was one of the key preventive measures against the coronavirus disease, and that this study began when there was still lack of knowledge about the spread of the virus, it was necessary to establish the online format as the only tool for researchers meeting, study instruments preparation, researchers meetings with the advisor for the construction of questionnaires, discussions, or relevant aspects to be considered in the study. In addition, the online model was also used as a contact and data collection strategy, which has some advantages. For example, while the technological tools allowed for greater outreach to sex workers in the country, personal contact to enrich the information collected was limited.

Taking into account all these aspects, the present study aimed to contribute to the progress of the debate on LGBT aging and old age, covering areas commonly neglected by society, as is the case of sex workers. These workers face a series of adversities and social prejudice as they get old in a vulnerable environment, where the ideal body standard is overvalued. Therefore, it is necessary to understand as much as possible how the aging process occurs in these individuals, as well as their afflictions and perspectives on LGBT aging in general. This study sought to bring knowledge on that topic, trying to extract the perspectives of men and women who work in such service and who mostly belonged to the LGBT community.

Moreover, by understanding the inequalities plagued by the pandemic, it is intended to contribute to the debate on effective actions to assure the rights and stability of LGBT elderly people, since the population has grown considerably in the world and has been greatly affected by the pandemic. It is expected that further studies will be conducted to explore such an important issue for society. The potential scope of online research is recognized but it is also interesting to blend it with face-to-face research to promote a clearer and more productive understanding of LGBT old age.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that there has been no personal, moral, financial, or research conflicts of interest during the development of this study.

Ethical responsibility

This study was submitted to and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Universidade Federal do Piauí, under report N° 1.755.790. In addition, the participants received a free and informed consent form which explained the study, its implications, risks of participation, as well as guaranteed the confidentiality and security of data collection. The data gathering began after the signature of the consent form.

Data confidentiality

This study was conducted in accordance with the protocols of the Bioethics Committee of Universidade Federal do Piauí, the entity that evaluated and approved the research program.

Right to privacy and informed consent

The authors declare that no participant data appear in this report.

Authorship contribution

GSDLF: interpretation of the data, introduction, and results.

JGDA: data analysis and processing, introduction, and results.

MEDSA: general review and writing in APA format.

LFDA: study design and general review.

EMDSS: discussion and preparation of tables and figures.

IEDLB: discussion and references in APA format.

MFLS: discussion and conclusions.