Trans mother prevented from registering her child earns compensation of R$ 60 thousand

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The trans parliamentary advisor Ágata Mostardero (31) won a court case, on November 1st, to receive R$ 60 thousand in moral damages for the state of Rio Grande do Sul due to the embarrassment when registering her son Bento at the registry’s office. Information is from Universa.

Mostardero is a trans woman, having realized her real gender identity in the year 2018, when she had a girlfriend and, at the time, presented herself as a cisgender man. At this time, she started to study about hormonal transition, but at the same time, she wanted to have a child with her wife, so they decided to conceive a child first and then she would undergo hormone therapy.

Eventually little baby Bento was born, but Agata, who had already changed all her documentation to the female gender, heard that the child “had to have a father before the law” and, even though she participated in the biological conception of the child, she was prevented from registering him.

That’s when Ágata said she “was completely paralyzed”. “I asked if I could use my old name because I just wanted to resolve that situation. But it wasn’t possible, it was a dead document”, she recalls. Upon entering the court, the judge asked to present the medical report of her genitalia, which she denied as an affront to dignity.

Until then, Ágata was listed on the birth certificate as a “socio-affective mother”, as if she were an adoptive mother. It was only in 2020, after another lawsuit in court, that she was recognized as a biological mother. The sentence came on a decision by the Supreme Court, which allowed trans people to change their name and sex in the civil registry without needing a court decision or undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

When granting Ágata the right of registration, the judge in the case stated, at the time, that “the biological truth, whenever possible, should be included in the child’s birth certificate”.

Ágata’s lawyer, Gabriela Ribeiro de Souza, celebrates the decision and says that this is a step towards recognizing that “different families exist” and that “no prejudice will be tolerated”.

“The Federal Constitution and the international treaties that Brazil signs guarantee the concern with the dignity of the human person. It is a no more to prejudice and a warning: families have multiple backgrounds, not just heterosexual. All of them enjoy the same rights and deserve respect and dignity”,, says.

The mother sees in the indemnity not only a recognition of the State’s failure, but also a way to prevent other families from going through a similar situation.

“It’s a small step for, in a little while, to have laws that facilitate the registrations made by trans people, that prepare the registry offices. We are talking about the right to exist. I really hope this is fixed so that no one else has this damage,” says.