BETWEEN THE NORM AND THE BODY: INSTITUTIONAL TRANSPHOBIA, PERSONALITY RIGHTS AND THE PRODUCTION OF TRANS INVISIBILITY IN THE BRAZILIAN PRISON SYSTEM

Authors

  • Flávio Marcos de Oliveira Vaz Calderaro Federal University of Minas Gerais image/svg+xml
  • Daniela Costa Soares Mattar Universidade Edson Antônio Velano
  • Alexandre Gustavo Melo Franco Bahia Federal University of Minas Gerais image/svg+xml

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12818/P.0304-2340.2026v88p135

Abstract

 This article examines, from a socio-legal methodological perspective, violations of the personality rights of transgender people in the Brazilian prison system. The study departs from the finding that Brazil has ranked first worldwide in transgender homicides for the eighteenth consecutive year, as documented by the Trans Murder Monitoring 2025 of Transgender Europe and the 9th ANTRA (National Association of Travestis and Transsexuals) Dossier. The research investigates how the prison environment intensifies pre-existing structures of exclusion, transforming into daily experience what constitutional law prohibits as a matter of principle. The method consists of systematic bibliographic review combined with jurisprudential and documentary analysis. The work is organized around four axes: the philosophical and constitutional foundations of personality rights; gender identity as an autonomous fundamental right under ADI. (Direct Action for the Declaration of Unconstitutionality) n. 4.275/DF and ADPF. (Action Against a Violation of a Constitutional Fundamental Right) n. 347/DF; institutional transphobia as structural violence producing legal invisibility; and the inadequacies of current incarceration policies for transgender people. The essay aims to show that normative recognition alone, unaccompanied by cultural and institutional transformation, is insufficient for the effective protection of these rights, and that the full realization of human dignity in prison requires overcoming the gender binary upon which the national punitive model rests.

KEYWORDS: Human Dignity. Personality Rights. Institutional Transphobia. Prison System. Legal Invisibility.

Author Biographies

  • Flávio Marcos de Oliveira Vaz Calderaro, Federal University of Minas Gerais

    Pós-Doutorando em Direito pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Doutor e Mestre em Proteção dos Direitos Fundamentais pela Fundação Universidade de Itaúna. Professor de Direito da Universidade Professor Edson Antônio Vellano (UNIFENAS) e da Faculdade Anhanguera. E-mail: fmovaz@gmail.com. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002- 5836-6131

  • Daniela Costa Soares Mattar, Universidade Edson Antônio Velano

    Doutora em Direitos Fundamentais (UIT). Professora da Universidade Edson Antônio Velano (UNIFENAS). E-mail: dcsmattar@terra.com.br. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9459- 3278

  • Alexandre Gustavo Melo Franco Bahia, Federal University of Minas Gerais

    Doutor em Direito Constitucional pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Professor da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Bolsista de Produtividade do CNPq. E-mail: alexprocesso@gmail.com. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5461-7848

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Published

2026-08-19

Issue

Vol. 88 (2026)

Section

Artigos