Yesterday, the program "Profissão Repórter", on Globo, addressed the dangers that children suffer when their childhood is interrupted. Between cases of sexual violence, pregnancy and exploitation at work, reporters Mariane Salerno and Felipe Gutierrez followed the harsh routine of guardianship counselors on the outskirts of São Paulo.
At the child protection council, he showed the case of a 14-year-old girl who, by dressing like a boy and having masculine characteristics, went to live with her aunt because of the beatings she received from her mother and stepfather. "My mother didn't accept it. She was prejudiced against the way I dressed… I was very boyish," said the teenager.
When asked by the reporter if she would like to be a girl, the girl gestures that she doesn't and states that she has always been like that, "since she was little." "My aunt also didn't want to [accept]. I wanted to dress as a woman, I didn't accept it. So, I asked her to send me here [guardianship council]", she said.
After several attempts to find a place in a shelter, the counselor finally found and referred the teenager. Throughout the report, the issue of the girl's gender identity is implicit. But it clearly shows how prejudice can interfere with the childhood and happiness of a child who, despite suffering aggression from his own mother, tells the reporter, with tears in his eyes, that if he could choose where to live, he would still live with his mother.
