Hate and misinformation often go hand in hand in politics, especially when the discussion concerns minority rights. In recent months, this combination has led to an alarming increase in transphobia, that is, cases of intolerance towards transsexuals.
OR #AosFatosNOAR this week explains how transphobia has been exploited by MPs, even if it is racial insult crimenon-refundable and punishable, from 2019.
A trans person is someone who has a gender identity that is different from the sex assigned at birth and may or may not desire hormone therapy or interventions to affirm the gender with which they identify.
In recent years, the political commitment of the trans population in search of rights has grown in direct proportion to the misinformation and incitement to hatred propagated by sectors of the right regarding transsexuality. From January to March this year, To the facts detected misinformative posts that exceeded 4 million interactions on networks.
Among them was a fake post of a doctored photo to pretend that an LGBTQIA+ parade attendee was wearing a T-shirt that read “Trans guys are sexy”. In fact, she wore a completely white outfit.
But these lies aren’t limited to social media: In March, Aos Fatos reported an increase in posts targeting the trans community, when MP Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) made a transphobic speech on the gallery of the Chamber on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
The House was also the scene of transphobic speeches in June, when MPs and guests spread lies to attack the LGBTQIA+ community, in a Public listening on therapies for trans children and adolescents.
Among the false statements verified by this hearing is that Children and adolescents can undergo gender affirmation surgery in Brazil. The Ministry of Health, however, establishes that the intervention can only take place after the age of 18. The procedure is part of a process that involves a series of steps and is monitored by a multidisciplinary healthcare team.
Another misleading statement was that the mortality rate of trans people is three times higher than that of cis people due to the number of suicides and cancer. In reality, studies identify numerous causes of the high mortality of the trans population, many of which are linked to stigma and prejudice.
And it wasn’t just at this hearing that the trans community suffered and continues to suffer attacks. In May of this year, a CPI in Alesp investigate the support offered by USP Hospital das ClÃnicas to trans children and adolescents. The proposal came from the base of the governor of São Paulo, TarcÃsio de Freitas (Republicans), and was seen as a serious step backwards by the opposition and defenders of the hospital initiative.
Imported strategy. The political offensive against the trans community has not emerged in Brazil. In the United States today there is a strong mobilization of conservative politicians who aim to pass laws that take away the rights of trans people.
It is therefore no coincidence that most of the misinformation on the topic circulating among Brazilians comes from the United States. Those invited to the House hearing even based their lies almost exclusively on foreign data.
This fixation on attacking a minority and presenting it as a threat has a name: moral panic. A phenomenon described in the 70s, but which remains very current. We explain this topic better in the episode three in the Pray of Truth series. Watch:
Source: Terra
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