Deputy says that gender transition CPI does not aim at criminalization

The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) that will investigate hormone treatment for gender transition in children and adolescents at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo is already considered the most important of this mandate of the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo (Alesp). Voting for the board of directors was held last Wednesday (14) and the heated debates among the other parliamentarians show that the CPI will be full of differences of opinion.

While deputy Guilherme Cortez (PSOL), who as a bisexual represents the LGBT movement, stated that the “CPI lacks an object and is more intended to create a political factoid around a very sensitive situation that is the health of transgender people in the state of São Paulo”, deputy Guto Zacarias (União Brasil) emphasized the importance of the CPI and stated that the gender transition ends up being a choice of the parents. “I often say that a trans child is like a vegan cat. Everyone knows who is making that choice. It is the owner of that pet. In the case of a trans child, it is an irresponsible parent”.

Tight vote for the presidency of the CPI

Deputy Gil Diniz (PL), author of the CPI request, was elected president in a close vote against Deputy Beth Sahão (PT), by five votes to four. Despite the House’s tradition of electing its author as president of the CPI, congresswoman Analice Fernandes (PSDB) justified her vote against deputy Gil Diniz on the fact that Sahão is a psychologist and that it is a “sensitive topic”. Sahão was elected vice-president, while Deputy Lieutenant Coimbra (PL) was appointed as rapporteur.

Respect for the Child and Adolescent Statute

In an exclusive interview with People’s Gazette, Deputy Gil Diniz stated that the work is not intended to criminalize anyone. “We don’t want to criminalize anyone a priori, but if by chance someone is experimenting with children illegally, doctors and parents will be held accountable,” he noted. He added that the purpose of the CPI is “to understand what happens at the Hospital das Clínicas and whether the Child and Adolescent Statute is being respected”.

“A teenager cannot have a sexual reassignment surgery and, if by chance it was done, we want to know by whom, how and who authorized it. As for hormone treatment, we want to know if it is scientifically proven or if it is an experiment, after all it’s children and teenagers who are exposed”, he questioned.

Another issue that the congressman wants to clarify through the CPI is whether the signs that there are people who regretted making the gender transition are real. “Does every child who starts treatment go to the end of the transition? Did any of them regret it? The Hospital das Clínicas must have this data and we also want to understand the social profile of these children”, he said.

Without “value judgment” and “in the light of science”

Deputy Beth Sahão, in turn, told the People’s Gazette that the objective of the CPI is “to bring science to the debate”. “We are not going to bring a value judgment here, the value judgment will be left outside the door. From the door in, it is science that will prevail. If someone here denies science, we will try to make a strong block to defend scientific work “, she said.

Regarding the fact that children and adolescents still have or not a degree of immaturity to decide to make the gender transition, Sahão stated that “they do not decide, but it is a question that is often presented by families.”

“I’m also going to learn about this, but in the meetings we held here with the entire team involved, we realized that these young people, these sons or daughters present themselves, want to make the gender transition and need it. Even children who are born with double genitalia and have to have surgery because they can put their lives at risk,” he said.

Treatment done by volunteers since 2010

In 2021, deputy Gil Diniz sent a Request for Information to the Hospital das Clínicas “requesting information about the Transdisciplinary Outpatient Clinic for Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation and about the children assisted in this Program”.

In response, the institution stated that the Transdisciplinary Outpatient Clinic for Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation of the Institute of Psychiatry of the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo (AMTIGOS-IPq-HCFMUSP) was created in 2010 “for health care of the adult transsexual population by a multidisciplinary team” and which from that date began “to receive, by spontaneous demand, families of children and adolescents with gender variability”.

According to the document, “of the 892 screenings carried out” so far, “we have children and adolescents of the most diverse ages, 617 of which are up to 17 years old. 88 children (03 to 11 years old) and 106 adolescents (12 to 17 years old) are being followed up at this outpatient clinic.”

The document also states that “the youngest child who started monitoring and in blockade of the hypothalamic-pituitary axis was 10 years and 8 months old. Of the 53 referred for endocrinological follow-up, 16 were discharged and 37 are still being followed up, the vast majority over 12 years old (only 10 are under 12 years old – mean age 11 years old).”

In addition, the document informs that “the work is basically voluntary and only uses the facilities of the Institute of Psychiatry and the Institute of Children and Adolescents”. The professionals who participate in the work are mostly psychologists, but also psychiatrists, pediatricians, physiotherapists, physical educators, speech therapists, social workers and nurses.

CPI request on gender transition

In the request for the opening of the CPI made by Deputy Diniz, he argues that the information sent by the Hospital das Clínicas in 2021 is already cause for concern, because “it was only in 2019 that the Federal Council of Medicine, a body with the legal prerogative to discipline the practice and medical ethics in Brazil, regulated, through Resolution No. 2265, the follow-up and treatment of children and adolescents with suspected or diagnosed gender incongruence”.

The deputy argues that “the previous resolution on the subject, in force at the time of the creation of AMTIGOS and the reception of the first children and adolescents for treatment, was nº 1.955 of 2010, which presupposed, in the treatment of transsexuals, the civil majority of the patients”.

In this way, he states that “for almost a decade, the Hospital das Clínicas allowed and practiced, through its doctors and on its premises, a treatment that was not regulated or authorized by the Federal Council of Medicine.”