Research Shows Negative Transfer Of Trans Women To Female Prison Has Discriminatory Bias
The rewriting with a legal-feminist perspective brought to this episode of the Women and Justice series is about the decision of the Justice to deny the request for the transfer of 11 trans women from the male prison to the female prison in the Federal District.
To talk about the theme and rewriting and its results, professor Fabiana Severi received researcher from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Camilla de Magalhães Gomes, associate professor at the UFRJ National Faculty of Law and co-leader of the Corpografias Research Group – Gender, Race and Law.
The choice to rewrite this decision, according to the researcher, was made by the study group seeking a theme that was on the margins of what is called dogmatics, doctrine, dominant jurisprudence in the field. “At the time it happened, the decision generated a lot of repercussions, since its arguments were extremely biologizing and essentializing and even discriminatory and linguistically violent with respect to the women who claimed this transfer.” In addition, according to Julia Franzoni, issues related to trans women and transfeminism do not only concern this group, but “can serve as a starting point for feminist discussions in general”.
The feminist discussion as a legal method, used by the researcher’s group, was based on the reality of the prison system, which has its peculiarities, on the use of information and statistics, in addition to reports, instead of presumptions and generalizations. Another point was to make visible the different positions of the relationship between the subject and the State, in addition to the different relationships between the subjects. The third point taken into account, which is also part of this method of feminist rewriting, refers to the sources used, that is, making visible other sources that are produced by those who live that reality. “We were very concerned about looking for what trans people, what transfeminism has already produced or is producing in situations like these, whether in literature or in the forensic environment.” Lastly,
Results
About the results, the researcher says that, in addition to the discussion of feminist methods, with the inclusion and use of a transfeminist method, gender was also included. The reasons for the refusal of the first and second instances of the Criminal Justice System of the Federal District, for the requested transfer, went through arguments such as: biology, for a supposed greater physical strength, presence of certain genitals, the non-performing of reassignment surgery and other issues in that regard.
The group began to think about gender, taking into account self-declaration, by defining each subject, an idea that comes both from transfeminism and from the legal argument given by the Federal Supreme Court, in ADI 4275. that only dealt with a subjective issue and did not concern the prison issue. “We understand, therefore, that these biologizing considerations, such as the presence of a genital, non-transgenitalization, the presence of a genital attributed to the male, greater physical strength and even criminalizing arguments, such as the possibility of sexual violence, are extremely violent. . These could not be the basis for a decision, considering what is today the legal basis for the discussion of gender. So, in the end, we granted the transfer request in this rewrite.”
In addition to Professor Camilla, the professors and researchers Julia Ávila Franzoni, from the Department of Theory of Law of the National Faculty of Law of UFRJ and coordinator of the Labá Research Group – Law, Space & Politics, and Claudia Paiva Carvalho, from the Institute for Research and Urban and Regional Planning at UFRJ and co-leader of the Research Group Corpografias – Gender, Race and Law.
The Women and Justice series is part of the Rewriting Judicial Decisions in Feminine Perspectives project, a collaborative network of Brazilian academics and jurists from all regions of the country, which lends itself to rewriting judicial decisions from a feminist perspective.
The Women and Justice series is produced and presented by professor Fabiana Severi, from the USP Ribeirão Preto Law School (FDRP), and by journalists Rosemeire Talamone and Cinderela Caldeira – Support: academics Juliana Cristina Barbosa Silveira and Sarah Beatriz Mota dos
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