At least 278 deaths of LGBTIQ+ people were recorded in Brazil last 2022. The Observatory of Deaths and Violence against LGBTI+ published a report in which they bring to light some of the forms of these deaths, in which “refinements of cruelty are observed when the victims are part of the LGBTI+ population, that characterizes the crimes cited here as hate crimes.". Cope with this, in addition to legal work, requires a change in the social imaginary. What has it been like for you to face that imaginary??
It is difficult and often heartbreaking to see how many people remain homotransphobic., to the point of wanting to kill us, humiliate ourselves, offend us, discriminate against us, etc, for calling us members of a “shameful breed”, “demon race” and other similar insults. We are certainly very far from having, in Brazil, a social awareness about the equal dignity of LGBTI+ people in relation to cishetero people. Nevertheless, we have occasional little breakthroughs here and there, even institutional, like the judge of the Federal Supreme Court who recognized homotransphobia as a crime of racism in 2019. Society now knows that an act considered homotransphobic by the Judiciary will result in criminal punishment, although many times with alternative sentences to prison. People think that a homotransphobic person can go to jail, which is possible in the most serious cases (In Brazil, sentences of up to four years can be converted into alternative sentences to prison, and crimes such as racism, in which homotransphobia is framed, has sorrows 1 a 5 years, even in cases where alternative punishment is appropriate, The Judiciary can justify the need for prison due to the seriousness of the case).
It is difficult and often heartbreaking to see how many people remain homotransphobic., to the point of wanting to kill us, humiliate ourselves, offend us, discriminate against us, etc, for calling us members of a “shameful breed”, “demon race” and other similar insults. We are certainly very far from having, in Brazil, a social awareness about the equal dignity of LGBTI+ people in relation to cishetero people. Nevertheless, we have occasional little breakthroughs here and there, even institutional, like the judge of the Federal Supreme Court who recognized homotransphobia as a crime of racism in 2019. Society now knows that an act considered homotransphobic by the Judiciary will result in criminal punishment, although many times with alternative sentences to prison. People think that a homotransphobic person can go to jail, which is possible in the most serious cases (In Brazil, sentences of up to four years can be converted into alternative sentences to prison, and crimes such as racism, in which homotransphobia is framed, has sorrows 1 a 5 years, even in cases where alternative punishment is appropriate, The Judiciary can justify the need for prison due to the seriousness of the case).
On the other hand, the universities, part of the media and public opinion, among other people, They have speeches about the inclusion and non-discrimination of LGBTI+ people. So that there are no doubts, We still live the true banality of homotransphobic evil in Brazil, as recognized by the Supreme Federal Court (quoting this speech of mine) in the trial of 2019 who recognized homotransphobia as a crime of racism: countless people still feel they have the pseudo “right” to offend, discriminate, attacking and even killing LGBTI+ people for their mere sexual orientation or gender identity and that is heartbreaking. But we have made specific progress, in the logic of the reformism of the Social and Democratic State of Law. I confront this homotransphobic imaginary in the way I can and know how., that is to say, through the law and through judicial actions, that in Brazil can be proposed directly before the Supreme Federal Court . I carried out two recent actions on the right of transsexual and transvestite women to remain in the women's prison if they wish. (ADI 7429 y 7434) and previously I performed two actions, one individual and one collective, for the STF to recognize that the Brazilian State has the constitutional obligation to protect GBTI+ men in same-sex relationships (men in emotional-sexual relationships with other men) against domestic violence and determine our protection by existing legislation until a special law is created (MI 7442 and my 7452).
Other activists fight in the Political Powers (Executive and Legislative), what I also do whenever I can, and others in advocacy projects in civil society more directly. I'm not discouraged at all, but since 2022 I say that I am psychologically disgusted by this country that flirts with fascism, in light of the elections 2018 and the almost re-election of former president Bolsonaro, now fortunately declared ineligible by the Electoral Tribunal. But Bolsonarism, as a branch of fascism, is still very strong in Brazil and the fascists lost the shame of being so with the election of Bolsonaro in 2018, although without recognizing his fascism (and that of Bolsonaro himself). Even because of this psychological illness, It took me a long time to answer these questions., so I reiterate my apologies here, publicly.
Toni Reis, a great gay activist for LGBTI+ rights in Brazil, He told me years ago that he admires me because I act. “with a mission” in the defense of our LGBTI+ citizenship and I have the audacity to say that I agree, because I stop my life to fight as I can, normally through the Judiciary, for our rights. I do it with great pleasure, out of passion for law and human rights, to be taken seriously. It's not easy and sometimes it's heartbreaking., but I keep fighting and I am better than during the first half of this year. Life and the good fight for human rights must always continue.
From your experience as a lawyer, How can violence be dismantled using a legal apparatus that has historically been dominated by patriarchal thinking??
It is a question still unanswered in Brazil and around the world.. In the reformist logic of a Social Welfare State, I believe that widespread homotransphobic violence and discrimination can be dismantled through training and awareness-raising in the justice system., of institutions in general and society as a whole, in favor of full equality and dignity of all LGBTI+ people compared to cishetero people. In addition, through social communication strategies with hegemonic and alternative media that help combat the scarecrows that defame us, that is to say, that show society that we do not want “destroy the family” (we want our same-sex families to be protected, as well as heterosexuals), We do not want to “sexualize children” or make them LGBTI+, We want people to recognize that we are LGBTI+ from a young age and for cishetero children and adolescents to learn to respect or, at least, to tolerate, not to attack or offend LGBTI+ people.
an observation: unlike socialist activists, who believe that only with a Socialist Revolution will we have full citizenship, I am an enthusiast and defender of the Democratic and Social State of Law. We always respond to this with the hope that it is Socialism with Freedom , as the name of a leftist party in Brazil says (PSOL – Socialism and Freedom Party), and against experiences of “real socialisms” that stifled individual freedoms in favor of material equality. Many socialists deny that they were “real socialisms”, which I agree with, I'm just pointing out that what we've had so far was not “authentic welfare states”, but only ghosts of them. I always say that my utopia is “Universalized Norway”, that the whole world should be like the Nordic countries, who got to where they are thanks to exploration during the era of colonialism and benefit from it to this day, but if a “socialist world” is possible, a true state of well-being too.
What litigation cases in Latin America offer you a sense of hope for the region in terms of LGBTIQ+ rights?? Because?
Although in Brazil we have had emblematic victories in the STF since 2011 regarding our citizenship rights, It makes me agony to think about how we didn't have recognized rights before 2011 (a situation that is probably only better in Colombia, also due to historical decisions of the Constitutional Court that I am very interested in studying in depth and I am encouraged). The decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have been a balm, a light of great hope by recognizing sexual orientation and gender identity as categories suspected of discrimination, with a presumption of non-conventionality and a strong burden for the State that wants to discriminate against us, since they must demonstrate the imperativeness of this rule/decision for legitimate and necessary reasons; something that obviously did not exist in the discrimination in the upbringing of minors by LGBTI+ people and same-sex couples (Atala Riffo case and daughters Vs. Chile, 2012), on discrimination in the Armed Forces (Flor Freire Vs case. Ecuador, 2016), on discrimination against same-sex couples in social security pensions (Duque vs case. Colombia, 2016) and in access to civil marriage (OC 24/17 – second part), in the disrespect for the gender identity of trans people in their identification documents, which must be changed regardless of surgeries, complaints and legal actions (OC 24/17 – first part), in addition to the right of trans women to remain in women's prison and general non-discrimination against LGBTI+ people who are incarcerated (OC 29/22). As well as in the decisions that determined the mapping of homotransphobia and the creation of public policies in our favor. (Red Vs Blue case. Peru, 2020).
In Brazil, control of conventionality and respect for the decisions of the Commission and the Inter-American Court are still in their infancy, being a topic still little studied and little known by the Judiciary and legal operators in general., still depending on the good will to comply (classic problem of international law that arises from anachronistic conceptions of sovereignty, although the state sovereignly agreed to respect the treaties and the jurisdiction of the Court) which is a shame. In any case, The emancipatory jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the protection of LGBTI+ rights gives me a ray of hope, both in Brazil and for other Latin American countries. I say this because the story of gay lawyer Eliecer Lu from Panama broke my heart., when he said that the decisions of the Supreme Court there were contrary to those of the IACHR, unlike those of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, being amazed by their continuity of the judicial fight to continue putting our citizenship on the Nation's agenda, even for possible future complaints from the country before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. I like to think that I would act the same way and, in any case, I see no other alternative in a country where the Executive, The Legislature and the Judiciary deny citizenship to LGBTI+ people. Therefore, I hope that the emancipatory jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on LGBTI+ rights can gradually help the social transformation of all Latin American countries (This also applies to decisions of other International Courts., other Supreme Courts, the UN Human Rights Council, etc.). I know well that the Law cannot do everything, although it can do a lot, which also applies to judicial decisions. We need social awareness campaigns about the equal dignity of LGBTI+ people compared to cishetero people, which requires political will from the Political Powers, big media, etc. In any case, although judicial decisions cannot solve everything on their own (and nobody believes that, I certainly don't believe it., Contrary to what I imagine many people think of me), It is a mistake to think that judicial decisions do not help. The mistake is to think that a judicial decision or a law will solve everything on its own and/or by magic.: far from generating the “end of the fight”, They configure new chapters in our history of struggle for full citizenship, without discrimination of any kind. That is my belief and in Brazil this is confirmed, although in a specific and very slow way, for the historic decisions of the Federal Supreme Court that guarantee the citizenship of LGBTI+ people.
