The Federal Public Ministry (MPF) launched a preliminary investigation to investigate the suspicion that the questions to identify the LGBTQIA+ community have been excluded from the 2022 Census.
According to the MPF, the fields of “gender identification” and “sexual orientation” in the basic and sample questionnaires would not have been included in the survey carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The procedure was initiated after a representation made by the Victim Assistance Center (CAV) of the Public Ministry of Acre.
In a note, the IBGE informed that “the Demographic Census questionnaire was completed in 2019 and its content was widely publicized by the media at the time.”
The institute also claimed that “in November 2020, the Census questionnaire received the addition of only one question, about the existence of a resident diagnosed with autism in the household. Since then, no changes have been made to the content of the 2022 Census questionnaire.”.
IBGE also recalled arguments used in 2018, in an action by the Public Defender of the Union (DPU) against the Institute, which asked for the inclusion of a question to account for the transsexual population.
The agency argues that, for “identification issues, which require one as a respondent, are not compatible with a census operation, which has one resident per household, who is responsible for himself and for the other residents, to guarantee the quality of its results , there being no way to change this technical-operational aspect for the 2020 Census”.
“Gender investigation is considered a sensitive question, that is, a question that can be considered invasive and personal by the respondent, which may impact the collection of all other information”, completes the IBGE.
For political scientist and sociologist Paulo Baía, in an interview with CNN, the allegations used on that occasion do not respond to the questionings of the present action of the Federal Public Ministry and are inconsistent.
“This argument that the IBGE uses is valid for all types of questions, such as those asked to know the color, religion and for several items that the Census and the PNAD [Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios] question. In all of them, only one resident is responsible for the others. This argument that excludes gender questions is technically wrong, because several other items can generate the same feeling to the interviewee.”, he explains.
According to the MPF, “the measure taken by the regional attorney for Citizens’ Rights (PRDC), Lucas Costa Almeida Dias, intends to correct any error in the census methodology, which will exclude an important part of the Brazilian population from the real picture that must be shown by the Census. ”
The MPF also warns that without these identifications, those individuals who do not consider themselves within the “female-male” binomial will be invisible so that they can be covered by public policies aimed at their fundamental rights “such as the right to exist, to receive health care , between others”.
“The ordinance establishing the procedure also reminds that the protection of this population must be carried out in every possible way, given the reality of inequalities and violence that places Brazil at the level of the countries that record the most lethal and intentional crimes against the life of LGBTQIA+ people”, he concludes.
Reference: CNN Brasil
