When he was a candidate, Lula said that unisex bathrooms were “from Satan”

Almost a year after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated at an event with evangelicals that “the story of a unisex bathroom” could only “have come from Satan’s head”, the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship of the PT government published a resolution that directs all schools in the country to install bathrooms for individual use, “independent of gender”.

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At the time that then-candidate Lula made the statement, he released a letter released to evangelical voters to address insinuations against him related to customs, in which he affirmed his commitment to religious freedom, denied that he would close churches and guaranteed that he would not would install unisex bathrooms in public schools.

The letter was read in São Paulo on October 19, 2022 at an event with around 140 evangelical leaders, representing 35 religious denominations. There, the president took a position on the matter:

“Now they’ve invented the story of the unisex bathroom. Guys, I have a family, I have a daughter, I have a granddaughter, I have a great-granddaughter. The story of a unisex bathroom could only have come out of Satan’s head,” said the PT member in a speech that can be watched in this video.

In the same week, the president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Alexandre de Moraes, prohibited former president Jair Bolsonaro from alerting voters to the risk of implementing, in Brazilian schools, the possible “unisex bathroom”, if Lula won the election. claim.

What the government resolution says about bathrooms in schools

According to the resolution – published in the Official Gazette of the Union by the National Council for the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transvestite, Trans, Queers, Intersex, Asexual and Others (CNLGBTQIA+) –, “the use of bathrooms must be guaranteed, locker rooms and other spaces segregated by gender, if any, according to the gender identity and/or expression of each student”.

The document itself cites “risks of violence” in relation to the topic and advises “wherever possible, installation of bathrooms for individual use, regardless of gender, in addition to the existing male and female ones in public spaces”.

The resolution also indicates carrying out awareness campaigns about the right to “gender self-determination”, establishes that students dress according to their gender identity and that teachers use the “social name” to refer to students of any age, including in records schoolchildren.

Government clarification note

In a note published this Saturday (23), the government explains that there is no obligation for schools in the country to follow what the Resolution of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship says, as “the document does not have a legal or mandatory nature and does not mention bathrooms unisex”.

The note also informs that “there is no decree, order issued by a higher authority that determines compliance with a resolution on the subject” and that “the resolution only formulates guidelines regarding the institutional recognition of gender identity and its operationalization”.