Last week, the decision of a judge from Mato Grosso made news that, for the first time in the state, allowed the name change of a transgender person.
Despite the celebration on social media, I find it worrying that Sinii Savana Bosse Figueiredo, of the 13th Civil Court of Cuiabá, has, at the same time, denied the request for sex change of Karen Cruz (photo), the author of the action, who did not want to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
On the one hand, it really is a step forward to see judges from the interior of Brazil increasingly willing to understand the struggle of transvestites and transsexuals to change their first name. If in the past not even surgery was enough to accept the name change, today, as happened in Cuiabá, it is possible to change the name even without having undergone surgery. I mean, there is progress, not uniform, but undeniable.
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However, today it seems that the new frontier has been to obtain sex change through the Judiciary when the transsexual does not want to undergo surgery. It is worth clarifying that not submitting to surgery is not absurd, nor is it the exception in the trans world. On the contrary, few girls are able to do it, as the SUS queue takes years, there is no guarantee of post-operative sexual satisfaction and the surgery is very expensive for a private doctor. Furthermore, not all transsexuals want to have surgery, as not all of them feel rejection of the male sexual organ.
When they deny the right to change sex in civil registration, judges expose transsexuals to more embarrassment, as authorities can identify the inconsistency between their female name and their male name on documents such as their passport. As a result, female transsexuals run the risk of being searched by male public agents, being incarcerated in male prisons and are subject to different deadlines for retirement and other rights related to the person's gender.
The judges' resistance also represents an attack on the free exercise of sexuality by transsexuals, who may feel compelled to undergo sex change surgery, against their will, just to guarantee the change of documents.
Finally, the change of name not accompanied by the change of sex, when requested by the transsexual, does not seem to make much sense, because if gender identity is a socio-psychic manifestation of transsexuality, it is not the transgenitalization surgery that makes anyone more or less trans. It is just one of the many stages of transformation, which involves hormonal, psychological, psychiatric, speech therapy, among others.
In Karen's case, she had already met the requirements for surgery in Italy, where she lives, but she did not have the surgery because she did not feel the need. Is it fair, in this case, to force her to bear her male gender against her will on civil registration? I think not.
Thales Coimbra is a lawyer specializing in LGBT law (OAB/SP 346.804); graduated from the Faculty of Law at USP, where he is currently pursuing a master's degree in the area of legal philosophy on homophobic hate speech; he also founded and currently coordinates Geds – Study Group on Law and Sexuality at the USP Law School; and writes biweekly about Rights on the portals A Capa and Gay Brasil. www.rosancoimbra.com.br/direitolgbt
