Transgender rights in Brazil

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Transgender rights in Brazil include the right to

sex reassignment surgery provided by Brazil's public health service, the Sistema Único de Saúde
.

Gender recognition

History

Before 2009

In 1993, the first Brazilian national meeting was held among transgender individuals.[1] This meeting was known as the National Meeting of Transvestites and Liberated People.[1] By 1995, gay and lesbian national meetings were being attended by transgender activist groups.[1] Then, in 1996, the National Meeting of Transvestites and Liberated People Fighting Against AIDS was held.[1]

Brazil participated in the drafting of the Statement on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. This document was presented in December 2008.[2] Brazil helped organize the launch of the Yogyakarta Principles in 2007.[2]

Since 2009

Changing legal

gender assignment in Brazil is legal according to the Superior Court of Justice of Brazil, as stated in a decision rendered on 17 October 2009.[3]

Unanimously, the 3rd Class of the Superior Court of Justice approved allowing the option of name and gender change on the birth certificate of a transgender person who has undergone sex reassignment surgery.

The understanding of the ministers was that it made no sense to allow people to have such surgery performed in the free federal health system and not allow them to change their name and gender in the

civil registry.[4]

The ministers followed the vote of the

sex reassignment surgery could constitute a new form of social prejudice, and cause more psychological instability.[5]
She explained:

"The issue is delicate. At the beginning of compulsory civil registry, distinction between the two sexes was determined according to the genitalia. Today there are other influential factors, and that identification can no longer be limited to the apparent sex. There is a set of social, psychological problems that must be considered. Vetoing this exchange would be putting the person in an untenable position, subject to anxieties, uncertainty, and more conflict."[6]

According to Minister

intimacy and privacy, which must therefore incorporate their civil registry.[7]

Laws concerning gender identity-expression by country or territory
  Legal identity change, surgery not required
  Legal identity change, surgery required
  No legal identity change
  Unknown/Ambiguous

Since 2018

The

National Justice Council published the rules to be followed by registry offices concerning the subject.[8]

In 2020, a study was conducted to understand the quality of life of Brazilian transgender children.[9] 32 participants were involved in the study, and they were either interviewed or placed into focus groups to gather their perspective.[9]

Gender reassignment surgery

The first male-to-female gender-affirming surgery in Brazil was Performed by Dr. Roberto Farina in the 1970s. He was prosecuted for his actions but was eventually acquitted of all charges in 1979.[10]

In 2008, Brazil's public health system started providing free

medical care as a basic right.[11]

The Regional Federal Court agreed, saying in its ruling:

"from the biomedical perspective, transsexuality can be described as a sexual identity disturbance where individuals need to change their sexual designation or face serious consequences in their lives, including intense suffering, mutilation and suicide."

Patients must be at least 18 years old and diagnosed as transgender with no personality disorders, and must undergo psychological evaluation with a multidisciplinary team for at least two years, begins with 16 years old. The national average is of 100 surgeries per year, according to the Ministry of Health of Brazil.[12]

Transgender Discrimination

There were about 200 homicides of transgender individuals in Brazil in 2017, according to the Brazilian National Transgender Association.[13] Additionally, Brazil made up 40% of all murders of transgender individuals since 2008, according to Transgender Europe.[13] More recently, the number of transgender women murdered in Brazil went up 45% in 2020.[14]

Sao Paulo city council member Erika Hilton, the first transgender woman to be elected to the city council, received death threats and, as a result, had to change her habits for safety reasons.[14]

See also

References