Brazil’s Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government cannot require trans people to undergo medical procedures in order to change their gender markers on identification documents.
Prior to this ruling, transgender people in Brazil were able to change their genders and names on official documents only after receiving mandatory psychiatric evaluations and undergoing surgical procedures, plus, a judicial order from the Public Prosecutor.
According to the Human Rights Watch, countries all over the globe have begun changing their policies on legal gender recognition to reflect one’s personal identity without the approval of additional parties like doctors, psychologists, judges, etc.
The decision is part of a larger global effort to expand transgender rights and recognition, a movement that has also touched various countries in South America and some European nations. Argentina became the first country to pass a similar law in 2012. That bill allowed anyone over 18 to choose their legal gender and have official documents changed without medical and judicial approval. Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Malta followed suit, loosening restrictions on gender recognition.
According to Equaldex, Brazil offers its LGBTQ+ citizens a full slate of rights and protections, including protection from discrimination, bans on conversion therapy and intersex infant surgery, donating blood and more. Still censorship and non-binary recognition laws vary by region.
In 2018, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued an advisory opinion claiming that countries around the world should prioritize fast, inexpensive and straightforward procedures to allow legal recognition based on self-perceived identity.
Brazil has been making strides in gender identity recognition this year. Last month, a nonbinary Brazilian person was granted official documents with a gender neutral marker, the first of its kind in the South American nation. The court decision was unanimous and a historic win for Brazil’s LGBTQ+ community.
