Abstract
This paper analyses the model for a motion of civil requalification of transsexual people prepared by employees of the Center for the Defense of Sexual Diversity and “Homoaffecttive Rights” of the Public Defender’s Office of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and its influence on the daily life of the institution. The data I discuss come from the ethnography carried out at this center during 2014. The main argument for realizing the right to change name and/or sex is a defense of the "dignity of the human person". On the one hand, part of the rhetoric used in these documents tries to produce in the individual responsible for the judgment an empathy for the suitor by appealing to compassion. On the other hand, throughout the text, there are denunciations of a kind of “moral contamination” on the part of judges who deny such requests, revealing moral and emotional dimensions in the political making of transsexual people in search of "their rights".
Key Words:
Dignity; Moralities; Rights; Transsexuality; Civil requalification