Unanimously, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) extended the protection of the Maria da Penha Law to homosexual couples formed by men and transsexual women. The virtual plenary of the court judged the action on Friday (21) at night.
The case began to be analyzed on the 14th and had only the trial concluded yesterday. The ministers accepted action by the Brazilian Association of Homotransaphive Families (ABRAFH), according to which the National Congress omits not to legislate on the subject.
For the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the absence of a norm that extends the protection of the Maria da Penha Law “can generate a gap in protection and punishment against domestic violence.”
Expansion
The Federal Supreme Court (STF) ruled that the protection conferred by the Maria da Penha Law should be extended to homosexual couples formed by men and transsexual and transsexual women.
“Considering that the Maria da Penha Law was edited to protect women against domestic violence, from the understanding of women’s cultural subordination in society, it is possible to extend the incidence of the norm to homosexual couples, if contextual factors are present that The man victims of violence in the position of subordination within the relationship, ”said Moraes in his vote.
“This is because gender identity, although social, is one aspect of personality and is inserted the right to identity, intimacy, privacy, freedom and isonomic treatment, all protected by the greater value of human dignity ”, Added the minister.
Regarding transsexual and transvestite women, Moraes understood that the expression “woman” – contained in the Maria da Penha Law – covers both female and female gender. For the minister, “external physical conformation is only one, but not the only one of the defining characteristics of the genre.”
“There is, therefore, a state responsibility to ensure protection, in the domestic field, to all types of family entities,” Moraes added in his decision.
Protection
Sanctioned in 2006, the Maria da Penha Law establishes measures to protect victims of domestic violence, such as the creation of special courts, the granting of urgent protective measures and the guarantee of assistance to victims.
In a report of 2022, the National Council of Justice (CNJ) announced that the most frequent crime against transvestites and gays was the murder (with 80% and 42.5%, respectively).
In the case of lesbians, bodily injury (36%) and injury (32%) prevailed. Trans women appeared as most victimized by threat crimes (42.9%).
