Brazil – Two landmark court rulings earlier this month have significantly strengthened the rights of Transgender in Brazil.
Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously decided on a lawsuit brought forward by the Prosecutor General’s Office in 2009, ending the practice of requiring surgery and other medical and bureaucratic hurdles before being allowed to legally change a name and gender. Transgender People of any Gender can now submit a simple notarized request to update their name and gender in the civil registry.
“The ruling is a line in the sand that should be celebrated. Up until now, bureaucratic procedures had been on the rise for those who wanted the civil registry to reflect their gender identity and their names,” Federal Prosecutor Carlos Eduardo Paz told Folha de Sao Paulo. He continued: “From now on and without further constraints, transgender individuals can demand that the state fully recognize their right to happiness without having to face any kind of prejudice or institutional violence.”
In a second ruling, the Superior Electoral Court decided that transgender candidates can run in elections using their preferred name. The preferred name would be printed on ballots and used on electronic voting machines. This ruling came right in time for the start of Brazil’s election season where voters will elect a president, state governors, senators and members of the country’s Congress.
These two landmark rulings strengthens the transgender population in Brazil, a country which still has the highest rate of crimes against transgender individuals with 179 killed transgender persons in 2017 alone.
Feature Image Attribution: By Pumbaa80, Kelson, OAlexander, Marcos Elias de Oliveira Júnior and Giro720. [Public domain or CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
