Civil registry offices across the country broke a record, throughout 2022, of notes referring to the transgender population’s gender reassignment. During the period, there was an increase of almost 70% in the number of people who changed their name and gender, according to an official survey of the sector.
Data compiled by the National Association of Natural Person Registrars (Arpen-Brasil), an entity that brings together all 7,741 Civil Registry Offices in Brazil, installed in all municipalities and districts of the country, show that last year 3,165 registration procedures were carried out. gender change, a number 69.9% higher than that seen in 2021, when there were 1,863 changes.
If compared to the first year of the procedure (2018), when 1,129 acts were registered, the growth is 180.3%.
The records are made directly in a notary without the need for a judicial procedure or sex reassignment surgery.
The 3,165 procedures launched in 2022 represent a historic level since the change began to be carried out directly at the notary, in 2018.
In that year, a decision by the Federal Supreme Court and regulated by Provision No. 73 of the National Council of Justice (CNJ) allowed the procedure to be carried out through extrajudicial means, without the need for a process, lawyer or court decision.
Of the total acts performed in 2022, 43% refer to people who changed their gender from female to male, while 51.3% changed their gender from male to female, a proportion that has been maintained over the years.
Already 5.7%, changed the name, but have not yet performed or are in the process of changing sex.
“Today, the population is already quite aware that it is in the Civil Registry Office that citizenship is born”, says Gustavo Renato Fiscarelli, president of the National Association of Natural Person Registrars/Brazil.
“It’s where a person gains a name, surname, nationality, affiliation and rights. Attending and providing the Trans population with a basic right of their personality, after so much time of discrimination, is an achievement of society, but also of the activity of the civil registry, which allows you to give what is in its essence: citizenship.”
How to make?
To guide those interested in making the change, the entity that brings together notary offices across the country edited a National Booklet on Name and Gender Change in Notary Public Offices, which contains a step-by-step procedure and the documents required by the national norm of the CNJ.
In the process of changing the gender in the name at the Civil Registry Offices, it is necessary to present all personal documents, proof of address and the certificates of the civil, state and federal criminal distributors of the place of residence for the last five years, as well as the certificates of state and federal criminal execution, of Protest Notary Offices and of Labor Justice.
Afterwards, the registrar conducts an interview.
Any notes on the certificates do not prevent the performance of the act, and it is up to the notary to notify the competent sector about the change of name and sex, as well as the other identification bodies about the change made in the birth registration.
According to the registry offices, the issuance of other documents ‘must be requested by the interested party directly to the competent body for their issuance’. There is no need to submit medical reports and there is no need to undergo an evaluation by a doctor or psychologist.
“It is a practical document, with detailed instructions that can help people to carry out the procedure directly at the Notary, without the need for a lawsuit or additional expenses with lawyers and costs”, highlights Fiscarelli.
