The right to have a name to call your own.

Researcher investigates and explores the paths taken by trans and transvestite people in the appointment processes

The right to have a name to call your own.

Researcher investigates and explores the paths taken by trans and transvestite people in the appointment processes

Our names introduce us to the world, but trans and transvestite people still fight a constant battle to be recognized by the name they chose. Based on her own experience, transvestite Elis Rosa dos Santos Simão decided to investigate, in her dissertation, entitled “Rectify your name: an ethnography on naming processes in the lives of trans and transvestite people”, the bureaucratic, political and subjective paths involved in the use of the social name and the rectification of name and gender in the civil registry.

A social name is the designation that trans, transvestite and non-binary people can choose, in accordance with their self-perceived gender identity, even if this name is not officially included in their documents. Name and gender rectification refers to the legal process of changing the first name and gender marker in civil records, a right guaranteed since 2018 in Brazil. “These are two distinct paths, with different impacts on the lives of trans and transvestite people,” says Elis Rosa.

Conducted during her postgraduate studies in social anthropology at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH), the study is based on the researcher’s journey to understand how a name can provide a key to access not only citizenship, but also a field of disputes. “Like my interlocutors, I also had to go through a process of gestating a name, using a social name, and then rectifying it. Each stage has its challenges, achievements and strengths,” she says.

Isadora Lins França, a professor at IFCH and supervisor of the master's degree, explains that the author's account, by integrating the research, allows for a critical reflection on the processes studied: "She is a researcher and also a subject of experience. This comes from anthropology, but also from feminist and transfeminist theory, which considers the knowledge that is produced as something that is not completely separate from the person who produces the knowledge."

The dissertation discusses the trajectory of four trans and transvestite activists: Neon Cunha, Carolina Iara, Erika Hilton and Pedro Ferreira. “They all went through the use of their social name and its rectification at some point. This is something that affects us, but it does not make us equal. Each person starts from a reality – of race, class, religion, generation – to access this right”, said Elis Rosa.

According to the study, document rectification, even after a 2018 decision by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) authorizing the change by self-declaration at notary offices, still faces a series of obstacles. “It is necessary to have a notion of the law or, if obstacles are encountered in this procedure, the applicant needs to invest even more money, hiring a lawyer. Given these complexities, many of these people give up, halfway through, in the pursuit of this right”, he reports.
The dissertation also highlights institutional transphobia, as in the case of a young transvestite that Elis Rosa accompanied and who, even after starting the rectification process, was treated in the masculine sense during service at a registry office.

Another sensitive point addressed in the master’s degree is what the researcher calls the “logic of suspicion.” “Even though it is a right guaranteed by self-declaration, we are treated with suspicion. It is as if we were less trustworthy, as if our identity were a sham.” According to França, “this is a logic that permeates many administrative processes of the State, used to filter rights. But, when it falls on the subject and not just on the documents, this suspicion reinforces the moral delegitimization of these people. In this context, trans people are treated as less credible, less human.”

Rectification or death

The case of Neon Cunha, one of her research interlocutors, is representative. In 2016, Neon filed a lawsuit requesting the correction of her name and gender without presenting reports or undergoing surgery – common requirements at the time. As a subsidiary request, she requested the right to assisted death if the State did not recognize her name and identity.

“She pushed the limits of the law. She would rather die than live without recognition. This says a lot about what is at stake when a person is denied the right to be who they are,” says Elis Rosa. Neon’s political strategy helped to drive the public debate that would result, two years later, in the decision made by the Supreme Court.

Despite the progress, the author considers the rectification to be just the beginning and emphasizes that the following processes still need to be improved. “After getting the new [birth] certificate, you have to go after changing your name and gender at each institution – bank, university, Federal Revenue Service. There is no integrated system. It’s a nightmare.”

Elis Rosa shared with the reporter the spiritual and emotional dimension of the process involving choosing her name: “My first name, Elis, chooses me. My second name, Rosa, was inspired by and dedicated to my great-grandmother, my undergraduate teacher and my spiritual entity.”

interdisciplinary

The choice of social anthropology as a field of research was not a coincidence. Elis Rosa, despite having a law degree, chose to change fields in order to deal more freely with issues involving gender, subjectivity and experience. “Law is still a very rigid field. Even though there are jurists committed to the issue [of gender issues], there are limits. In anthropology, I felt more open to dealing with the complexity of my research topics,” she says.

The master's dissertation is the result of an interdisciplinary dialogue: “I am not abandoning law. My text carries a technical precision that I was only able to achieve because I graduated in that area. But it is in anthropology that I was able to bring the experiences, the subjectivities, the corporality, the playfulness of what I have been working on”.

Elis Rosa became the first black transvestite to enter the Postgraduate Program in Social Anthropology at Unicamp through the quota policy for trans people, making her presence at the University a historic fact. This fact, on the other hand, reveals the abyss of exclusion. According to França, “there are 0,3% of trans people in universities, according to a study by Gemaa [Multidisciplinary Study Group on Affirmative Action], at Uerj [State University of Rio de Janeiro]. We are talking about a population whose average life expectancy in Brazil is 35 years. Affirmative action policies in the form of quotas and policies for permanence at university for trans and transvestite people, once admission is guaranteed, are essential for us to be able to reverse this scenario of exclusion somewhat.”