Court of Justice issues first birth certification of a non-binary person in Brazil

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The Court of Rio de Janeiro authorized, at the end of August, the birth certification of a non-binary person, Aoi Berriel (24), to have “non-specified sex” in it. The request was made by the Public Defender’s Office and the judge Antônio da Rocha Lourenço Neto, of the 1st Family Court of Ilha do Governador, said that agender people (people with no genders) must have their rights validated under the Principle of Human Dignity.

At first, Aoi sought out the Public Defender’s Office in 2015 to change her name and there she got the information that her gender could also be altered. By being a non-binary person, she (who prefers to be referred to in the female pronouns) didn’t think twice and made the request.

“I sought out the Public Defender’s Office to try and update my documents with my identity. After all, if the documents are mine, they should be cohesive with me. That is a right.” – she said in an interview with Catraca Livre.

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“With all the time I spent with this case, I realized how far of knowing how to deal with transgender people bureaucracy is. I continue to go after the changes in my documents and I am anxious to know if I’m going to have any problems. I expect the attendance to be completed. This way I will really be able to celebrate and reap the benefits of a process so important to my life’s maintenance.

As to the fact of preferring to be referred to with female pronouns, Aoi says that there has been an imposition of male pronouns throughout her life, and these have caused discomfort.

“Female pronouns don’t bother me, so I appropriate them when I connect with others in the official portuguese language. Unfortunately most people don’t easily adapt themselves to the neutral inflection using the letter “e” and this is socially exhausting. In my case, I chose to use female pronouns to keep my mental sanity”, she explained.

According to the public defender Letícia Furtado, coordinator of the Center of Defense of Homoaffective Rights (Nudversis), this decision introduces precedents for other non-binary people to have the same right recognized.

“We were educated to understand that we should be men or women because of reproductive factors. Our entire system is binary and our legal system was also based on this. The changes that have been happening are due to society showing this range of different behaviors, that they don’t have to be one thing or another, one gender or another. These people need to have their rights recognized, in respect to the principles of equality and human dignity.”

Information retrieved from Justiça Potiguar.

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