Transsexuality in children and adolescents is the theme of an event being held this Friday (2), at the Public Defender’s Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro, to remember the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, celebrated on May 17 . The Child and Adolescent Transdiversity: Challenges and Possibilities meeting brings together public defenders and trans rights activists. According to the coordinator of the Nucleus for the Defense of Sexual Diversity (Nudiversis), of the Public Defender’s Office, Helder Moreira, the discussion is important for society to understand that “a trans person is not born at 18”. “It is urgent to talk about the existence of trans children and adolescents, precisely to normalize this subject within our society, so that these people can live with a better quality of life, having access to college, being able to graduate, having more access to education and to a more harmonious home”, explains Moreira. According to the coordinator, the life expectancy of trans people is 35 years, less than half the average of the Brazilian population. The data are contained in the Dossier: Assassinations and Violence against Brazilian Travestis and Transsexuals, which confirms the high level of violence presented by the Trans Murder Monitoring (“Observatório de Assassinatos Trans”, in English), where Brazil occupies the top of the world ranking of violence against this audience. “The percentage of people who go to university is very low. Trans people are expelled from their families when they are still children or teenagers and end up entering compulsory prostitution. Prostitution becomes that person’s only path”. The dossier indicates that female transvestites and transsexuals constitute a group highly vulnerable to violent and premature death in Brazil, with a life expectancy of 35 years, while that of the general population is 74.9 years. Transition Singer and digital influencer Levi Aisar became nationally known when he was just 14 years old and participated in the 4th season of The Voice Kids program, when he still identified himself as a woman and with his given name, Lavínia Aisar. It was shortly after, around the age of 15, that Levi began to understand himself as a man and began his gender transition, which was completed a few months ago with the officialization of his new name. “We always feel, since childhood, a confusion. We feel different from other children. It started with me early on. I always thought there was something wrong with me because my family didn’t know much about it and they were very religious. So I never found answers and I always struggled with it during my childhood.” Levi told his family that he liked girls when he was 14, but it still took a while for him to recognize himself as a trans man. “With my family it was very difficult at first. They didn’t accept much. I spent some time without contact with my family and started my transition by myself. Nowadays they support me a lot, ”he reports. Eight-year-old Agatha, on the other hand, transitioned much earlier at just four years old. Her mother, Thamirys Nunes, welcomed and supported her daughter at that time. Thamirys created a non-governmental organization Minha Criança Trans and takes her experiences to social networks, where she has 100,000 followers on Instagram. “There are several challenges: the fear of violence, the insecurity of not knowing how long my daughter will be respected, when she will not suffer an act of aggression, of prejudice. And there is also the judgment of the other, who looks at my motherhood and tries to find a cause or effect of my having a trans daughter. They try to delegitimize me, put me in a dysfunctional role and not recognize my daughter’s right to exist and my right, as a mother, to accept who she is and respect my child”. The event will be held until 4 pm and the debates can be followed by the Public Defender’s Office channel on the internet.
Agência Brasil
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