Changing legal gender assignment in Brazil

Changing legal gender assignment in Brazil is legal according to the Superior Court of Justice of Brazil, as stated in a decision rendered on October 17, 2009.

Unanimously, the 3rd Class of the Superior Court of Justice approved allowing the option of name and gender change on the birth certificate of a transsexual who has undergone gender reassignment surgery.

The understanding of the ministers was that it made no sense to allow people to have such surgery performed in the free federal health system, Sistema Único de Saúde, and not allow them to change their name and gender in the civil registry.

The ministers followed the vote of the rapporteur, Nancy Andrighi. "If Brazil consents to the possibility of surgery, it should also provide the means for the individual to have a decent life in society," she said. In the opinion of the rapporteur, preventing the record change for a transsexual who has gone through a sex change could constitute a new form of social prejudice, and cause more psychological instability.

"The issue is delicate. At the beginning of compulsory civil registry, distinction between the two sexes was determined according to the genitalia. Today there are other influential factors, and that identification can no longer be limited to the apparent sex. There is a set of social, psychological problems that must be considered. Vetoing this exchange would be putting the person in an untenable position, subject to anxieties, uncertainty, and more conflict," she said.

According to Minister João Otávio Noronha of the Superior Court of Justice, the transsexual, in respect to their dignity, autonomy, intimacy and privacy, should have their social integration ensured according to their individual identity, which must therefore incorporate their civil registry.

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Wikipedia