Rectifying the gender or ratifying the norm?

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is analyze the judicial discourses referring to the demands for name and sex rectification in the civil registry before the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality 4.275 issued by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2018. For this, theoretical-methodological assumptions in discourse analysis of French matrix and a Foucaultian base were employed. The methodology consists of the case study analysis, and document analysis has been used as the research technique. The documents examined are three decisions of the Superior Court of Justice involving data rectification in the civil registry of transsexual people. It will be shown that judicial decisions concerning name and sex rectification in the civil registry of transsexual people (re)produce truths that strengthen gender norms responsible for the hierarchy of some identity experiences, including the transsexual one. Thus, the decision of Brazilian Supreme Court appears as a great advance in the realization of the human and fundamental rights of transsexual people, since it enables data rectification without the need of a transgenitalization surgery or a pathological medical report. It also allows a directly request at the civil registry, without the need of a judicial decision.