“The public prosecutor linked transgenderism to illness,” says the young woman who will be compensated with R$30,000 by the SP state.

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The guilty verdict, issued by Judge Fernando Antonio de Lima, of the Special Civil and Criminal Court of Gales (SP), set the payment of R$ 30,000 in moral damages to the young woman. The judge concluded that the Public Prosecutor’s Office used transphobic and stigmatizing language, which reinforced stigmas and denied the author’s dignity. The state can appeal, and the case can be analyzed by the Appellate Body, which is the second body in the special courts.

Maria Victoria says the story began when she was denied hormonal care by SUS. Determined to seek a legal solution, she collected documents, studied legislation and wrote her initial petition, which was later amended by a private attorney. The injunction was granted, but during the process, the state appealed it, the most painful moment in the process:

— The prosecutor used my registered name rather than my social name, used male pronouns and linked transgenderism to a disease. I participated in this process every day. When I read that, I despaired. I asked: “How can that be? The Public Prosecutor does not consider the minimum threshold for challenging the case?”

In the decision, the judge rejected the justifications presented by the Public Prosecution, which claimed the use of standardized forms and a large volume of requests, which would have caused the pronouns to be alternately changed. For the judge, this behavior was not merely an executive failure, but an act of symbolic violence that had tangible effects on the author’s dignity.

Citing philosopher Judith Butler, Judge wrote that “if language supports the body, it can also threaten its existence.” He also highlighted the mention of transgenderism as an illness, recalling that since 2018, the World Health Organization has removed transgender identities from its classification of mental disorders.

He stated in the sentence, “The condition of a trans woman is not a disease. The disease is prejudice. The disease is ignorance. The disease is intolerance.”

The decision applied the Protocol for Trial with a Gender Perspective and the Protocol for Trial with a Racial Perspective of the National Council of Justice, in addition to dialogue with precedents from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. On Sunday, when she learned of the ruling, Maria Victoria was with her family.

My first feeling was joy, because I worked on this work. The second thing I thought was that this would set a precedent for other trans people to know that the state can’t do what it wants. I’m in college to try to change something. You don’t see trans women as judges and prosecutors. He does not see representation. And I thought: I want to change this. Even if a judge is transphobic, he cannot be judicially transphobic.

The judge considered the moral damage “undeniable,” as the young woman’s identity was denied and her illness was contracted within the framework of a judicial process, an area that should guarantee protection. The ruling states that practices such as interchangeable pronouns and the use of civilian names reinforce the historical forms of erasure that trans women experience. The judge said that the financial compensation has a compensatory and educational nature, to prevent the Public Prosecution from repeating similar patterns in the future.

However, for Maria Victoria, the impact goes beyond compensation, and she says she seeks to ensure more people like her have the same rights.