The PSOL, PT, PDT, PCdoB and PSB benches filed a request for the impeachment of federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG) for breach of parliamentary decorum after making a speech considered transphobic. The request was presented to the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Artur Lira (PP-AL), and to the Ethics Council.
According to the parties, Nikolas Ferreira’s speech was “flagrantly discriminatory and transphobic”. When speaking on the tribune of the Chamber, on March 8, the deputy wore a yellow wig and said that he “felt like a woman” on International Women’s Day and stated that “women are losing their space for men who feel like women” .
“As can be seen from the deputy’s speech, the content of his speech is offensive and criminal in nature, since it is aimed at manifesting discrimination and ridiculing trans and transvestite people”, state the parties in the document.
The parties argue that “dissonant voices, divergent ideologies, often expressing themselves with heated debates, are part of the democratic rule of law and parliamentary life in the Chamber of Deputies”. “However, the statement by Federal Deputy Nikolas Ferreira is extremely serious and violates the legal and social order established by the Federal Constitution; it fails to comply with the duties set out in the CEDP of the Chamber of Deputies; it violates the provisions of various international treaties and agreements that the country has entered into undertook to observe; and it also overflows into criminally typified illegality. Its practice, therefore, is unconstitutional, illegal and not compatible with ethics and parliamentary decorum”, they add.
This Thursday (9), associations representing the LGBTQIA+ community and 14 parliamentarians entered the Federal Supreme Court (STF) with a crime news for the deputy to be investigated for transphobia. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office also called the Chamber of Deputies to investigate whether the deputy’s speech was an ethical violation.
On social media, deputy Nikolas Ferreira denies having made a transphobic speech. “I defended the right of women not to lose their space in trans sports – given the biological difference – and not to have a man in the women’s bathroom. There is no transphobia in my speech. I clarified the example with a (shocking) wig. What passes for that is hysteria and narrative”.
Since 2019, transphobia has been equated with the crime of racism in the country and has been treated as a heinous crime.
