The TJ-SP condemned Nicolas Ferreira for his transphobic practices and decided that the parliamentarian should also bear the procedural expenses and legal fees, equivalent to 10% of the compensation value; The MP criticized the decision
Federal MP Nicholas Ferreira (PL-MG) was sentenced last Wednesday on 19 charges Court of Justice of São Paulo (TJ-SP) Paid R$40,000 compensation for moral damages to a transgender woman.
The case occurred in 2022, when the then Belo Horizonte city councilor described a transgender girl as a “man.” At the time, she posted a video clip on social media talking about the incident of transphobia she suffered in a beauty salon.
Nicholas said at the time: “This person here considers herself a woman, but she is a man, and she was claiming to be transphobic. So, you are now required to shave your penis or else you are transphobic.”
After the complaint, the parliamentarian claimed that his criticisms were linked to the debate on “gender ideology” and that there was no intention to delegitimize the author’s dignity. The case is still subject to appeal.
Nicholas commented on his social networks on the conviction: “Calling a man a man has become a crime. I repeat: telling the biological truth has become a crime. Hundreds of trials, no one has been convicted of corruption, money laundering, deviance from the amendments and stealing from the pensioner. All that remains is the conviction for telling the truth. To persecute evil is the price of not being one of them.”
In the ruling, Judge André Salvador Bezerra of the 42nd Civil Court of São Paulo stated that the parliamentarian legitimized the discriminatory behavior experienced by transgender women, “which has a greater harmful potential for the entire society, creating a real incentive for other institutions to discriminate against transgender women throughout the country.”
The judge also stressed that Nicholas’ actions “made a mockery of the struggle for equal treatment.”
The author had initially requested the amount of R$20,000, an amount that was later increased to R$50,000, but was set at R$40,000. In this process, the MP’s defense asserted that the republication of the video “was limited to the exercise of freedom of expression and ideological political expression, without any violations directed at the author or discriminatory practices.”
However, according to the decision, “there is no doubt that the author suffered pain that could be described as extra-budgetary damages of significant consequence, due to statements made by an elected state holder.”
In addition, Nicholas Ferreira must bear the procedural expenses and legal fees set at 10% of the total compensation amount.