In the week that National Trans Visibility Day is celebrated, the National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals (Antra) released a dossier on violence against the trans population in Brazil. According to the survey, in the year 2021, at least 140 trans people were murdered in the country.
São Paulo is the state with the highest number of victims – 25 murders were recorded. In second place appears Bahia, with 13 cases, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 12 deaths. Most victims are young, black, between 13 and 29 years old and express the female gender.
According to the survey, the numbers of murders of trans people may be even higher due to underreporting of cases. The Association highlights that the absence of government data and the difficulty of accessing information from security departments and/or justice agencies are some of the biggest obstacles.
According to the document, crimes occur mainly on public roads and at night. Most victims are killed violently. Also according to the research, suspects do not usually have a direct, social or affective relationship with the victim and police and judicial practices are characterized by a lack of rigor in the investigation, identification and arrest of suspects.
Although the number of deaths was lower than that recorded in 2020, when 175 cases were recorded, it still remains above the average of murders recorded between 2008 and 2021, which corresponds to 123.8 deaths.
According to the association, transphobic violence and hate speech have grown and gained strength, especially on social media, in recent years. The survey also points out that young trans people are being murdered at an earlier age.
In 2021, the youngest victim was just 13 years old. The document highlights that between 2019 and 2020 the age of the youngest victim was 15 years old.
Faced with cases of violence and human rights violations against trans children or adolescents, the association highlights the lack of public policies that guarantee the protection and rights of people who do not identify with the gender assigned at birth.
The researcher, Bruna Benevides, responsible for the publication, highlights that trans adolescents are the ones who face the most difficulties, since many schools do not have the right to use the social name and/or respect for gender identity guaranteed. Which, according to the researcher, leads to exclusion in the school environment, leading to school dropout of many trans youths.
“Encouraging and including the discussion about diversity in schools can provide a scenario in which LGBTI+ people are no longer expelled from the school environment and can strengthen themselves within the educational process and, consequently, gain entry into the formal job market” points out Benevides.
In the report of more than one hundred pages, the researchers still criticize the handling of cases by police authorities, for not respecting gender identity and in most cases registering victims as male, which increases underreporting.
For the president of ANTRA, Keila Simpson, it is necessary to create specific public policies to guarantee the trans population protection of individual freedom, including the recognition of gender identity, to allow the inclusion of these people both in education and in the formal job market. .
“Our expectation is that in the next election, we will have more trans representatives running for parliament and that we will be able to elect as many representatives as possible.”
In the 2020 election, the number of trans people elected was almost four times greater than in the 2016 election. Of the 294 candidacies, 30 were elected.
social name
An initiative of the Public Defender’s Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro in partnership with the Itinerant Justice project of the Court of Justice has been enabling the civil requalification of non-binary trans people, that is, those who do not identify with either gender (male and female) .
The action, a pioneer in the country, has already made it possible to issue birth certificates for 47 non-binary trans people in November last year. Currently, this change is only possible in the judicial sphere, unlike the change from the baptismal name to the social one, which is done in a registry office for trans people who identify with the male or female gender.
Prior to the DPE initiative, only five people in the state of Rio de Janeiro had legally obtained the change.
The DPE still managed to take one more step forward, which was the replacement of the registration “indeterminate sex” with the term “non-binary” – an unprecedented feat in the country. This year, a new task force is scheduled to be held on February 18, at the headquarters of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, in the North Zone of Rio.
Interested parties must register by WhatsApp from Nudiversis (Nucleus for the Defense of Homoaffective Rights and Sexual Diversity) at the number (21) 96551-3809.
The Public Defender’s Office of Rio de Janeiro (DPE) is also negotiating with Detran the possibility of including non-binary gender in the body’s identification system. The change in the system has been discussed between the DPE and the body responsible for issuing documents, such as identity and driver’s licenses.
Changing the name in the birth record in an administrative way, that is, without the need to go through the courts, was authorized in Brazil only in 2018. But in the case of non-binary trans people, there is still no regulation.
Reference: CNN Brasil
