Questions/Answers

Transcidadania Program promotes human rights, access to citizenship and a qualification and humanization of the public assistance provided to transvestites and transgender in situations of social vulnerability. Transcidadania Program Guidelines are: I - offer of conditions of financial autonomy and of confronting poverty, through redistributive programs, uplift of education, professional qualification and intermediation of labor; II - development of actions to combat prejudice and discrimination against transvestites and transgender and respect for the expression of their gender identity and the use of the social name; III - training and permanent awareness of municipal public servants for an offer of qualified and humane service to transvestites and transgender people, observing the principles of human dignity, equality and non-revictimization; IV - citizen training in human rights for the exercise of citizenship, popular participation and social control. The Program works on the assumption that trans people have been socially excluded at many levels due to their trans identity. Social stigma has continuously deprived them of access to public goods and services to the extent that trans people are often unable to pursue life opportunities other than marginalized paths. Launched in 2015, its first class of Transcidadania graduated from high school in the same year. While 100 places were initially available, the number of places increased to around 200 in the following year. As a city-led and managed program, outcomes of Transcidadania show characteristics of both the basic level of gender responsiveness and transformative change on the gender responsiveness framework. In conclusion, Transcidadania addresses the practical needs of trans people by providing education services, while having a transformative effect on society at large, by shifting norms and attitudes towards a highly vulnerable group.

Transcidadania has as its main purpose the reintegration of trans people into education, as a first step to regaining their full citizenship and having more options in life. Besides improving formal education, beneficiaries attend human rights and professional trainings. The human rights trainings generates empowerment and information about their rights, including access to other public goods and services. Through the completion of secondary school, adult trans people have more opportunities for economic empowerment. The program also provides professional training to encourage the continuity of formal education and entry on the formal job market.

The chosen category is "Promoting gender responsive public service in decision-making". LGBTI Brazilians still suffer from extreme violence and transwomen, travesties, are especially affected. In fact, Brazil is said to have the world’s highest number of reported cases of violence against trans-people. Trans women only represent an estimated 10 per cent of the LGBTI population in Brazil, but in 2014, accounted for a disproportionate 41 per cent of murders of LGBTI people. In São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, it is estimated that trans-persons living in the city number in the thousands, many of whom face greater marginalization, social stigma and danger than their cis peers.

Transcidadania is a two-year program that offers scholarships and incorporates professional and human rights training to encourage trans-people to continue their education and promote their inclusion in the formal market and to fully exercize their citizenship. One aspect of the Transcidadania Program is the offer of training and sensitizing professionals working in key public services to ensure that trans people are treated with respect and dignity when accessing basic services. Personnel working in educational work settings and health services, as well as media, police and law enforcement, are key to ensuring that trans persons feel welcome, respected and professionally treated. Providing training regarding the needs and rights of transgender persons and the requirement to respect their dignity is paramount. It should be noted that Citizenship Centres with the role of sensitizing public servants in order to promote safe socialization spaces for LGBT people existed before Transcidadania was initiated. With Transcidadania, however, this role has become more pronounced. Besides training public servants, beneficiaries of the program attend human rights trainings. It generates empowerment and information about their rights, including access to other public goods and services.

In recent years, major progress on recognizing LGBTI rights has occurred in the city. The Transcidadania Program has been developed in the four citizenship centres established to support victims of anti-LGBTI violence. The Program creates a safe space for solidarity, visibility and awareness raising about the rights of trans people. This can be considered as a progressive shift deriving from the very local level, initiating a change in social attitudes and increased political orientation towards human rights.

Trans cidadania Program, which started in January 2015 with 100 places, promotes social reintegration and redress citizenship for transvestites, transgender women and transgender men in situations of vulnerability. In 2016, the monthly aid amount increased from R$ 827.40 (US$263) to R$ 983.3 (US$ 313). Currently, the program has 175 vacancies. Using the development of education as the main tool, the beneficiaries receive the opportunity to complete primary and secondary education, gain professional qualification and develop the practice of citizenship. Another differential of the program, which is already a worldwide highlight for being innovative, is a transfer of income, which enables the beneficiaries to be ready to complete their obligatory activities. Each beneficiary receives psychological, legal, social and pedagogical support during the two years of permanence without a program. Transcidadania is guided by three main axes of action: autonomy, citizenship and opportunities. - Amount of Monthly Aid: R$ 983.34 (US$ 313) (Nine hundred and eighty-three reais and thirty-four cents) - Daily load: 6 (six) hours

The innovative character of the Program is reflected in international recognition. In 2016, the Program was included in the International Association of Educating Cities' Best Practices Bank, after being presented at two international congresses of the Association - one in 2014 and the other in 2016. In April 2017, the São Paulo City Hall was invited to speak at the World Forum of Urban Violence and Education for Peace and Coexistence, in Madrid, to present Transcidadania as a policy to combat LGBTIphobia. In September 2017, the Program was included as a case study of Cities Alliance, calles “Gender Responsive Public Services Pathways to Equitable Economic Growth in Cities”.

The Program is an original initiative of the municipality of São Paulo. Before 2015, there was no specific policy directed exclusively for Trans gender people in the City of São Paulo. This initiative is inserted in the structure of the LGBTI Department of the Municipal Human Rights and Citizenship Secretariat of the City of São Paulo. In this sense, the existence itself of a specific local insitution for human rights policies, as well as a specfic department for LGBTI issues, is also considered a innovation in the national and regional context.

The total resources are: in terms of human resources, there are 4 pedagogues, 4 lawyers, 6 social workers and 7 psychologists, which work in 4 LGBTI Citizenship Centers. These are public sites distributed in the different areas of the City of São Paulo which offer a variety of public services to the LGBTI population. The total yearly budget of the Program is of approximately R$750,000 (US$240,000).

No

A number of cities in Brazil are currently considering replicating Transcidadania, and other countries have also taken notice of the programme. Uruguayan and U.S. government officials have contacted Transcidadania to see what they can learn from the programme, with the hope of potentially launching similar initiatives.

The initiative is supported by the social need of demand, in which the target audience suffer daily discrimination, prejudice, violation of rights and violence. In this way, the program constituted and is improving a network of care, protection, attention and discussion on the subject. The involvement and commitment of different departments and agencies has had an effect of access and respect for the population. Therefore, we identified that despite the relative significant cost of the program, there is determination in the continuity and willingness to improve in its challenges.

The program was conceived in the administration of 2013-2016 and remained in the present administration (2017-2020). Empirical analysis has demonstrated advances in schooling and insertion in the formal labor market of the participants. In economic aspects, the program has its own budget, linked to the Municipal Department of Human Rights and Citizenship, guaranteed during demand for the program, and there is a cooperation agreement between the Secretariats of Human Rights and Labor. In addition, there is the decree establishing the Transpassania Program (55.874 / 15) that guarantees that it is sustained by a administrative normative act.

Yes

The initiative has been evaluated since the end of its second year, through an analysis of the social profile of its beneficiaries and the monitoring of their trajectory in the course of the Program.

The analysis showed that most of the beneficiaries are transgender women and transvestites, in its majority black. They are in the age range of 30 to 49 years and a large part migrated to the city of São Paulo, coming from the Northeast region and Southeast of the country. In the Municipality, the majority lives in the central region. In relation to schooling, the majority are studying, through the Program, Secondary Education and Elementary Education II. During the program, the participants presented a significant lift in their school level, despite the difficulties of the school environment and the time of withdrawing from the school. In addition, it was possilble to recognize a shift in the posture of various public servants in the reception and care of the population served. It is worth mentioning the the Program included the implementation of specific municipal services for the population on the spot, as a reception center and health units for hormonal monitoring. Up to Februrary 2018, around 350 transgender persons had been benefited from the Transcidadania Program. Among them, more than 50 transgender persons were included in the formal market through the Program.

The indicators that are currently being used are: school elevation/school performance; access to basic services (social rights); access to the formal labor market, training and professionalization.

Transcidadania Program is a intersetorial initiative of the São Paulo City Hall, coordinated by its Human Rights and Citizenship Secretatiat. Originally, the program involved the following Secretariats of the São Paulo City Hall: Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship, Secretariat of Policies for Women, Secretariat of Health, Secretariat of Education, Secretariat of Social Assistance and Development, and Secretariat of Labor and Entrepreneurship. On a statewide, the Secretariat of Education was also involved. Nowadays, the program involves the following Secretariats of the São Paulo City Hall: Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship, Secretariat of Health, Secretariat of Education, Secretariat of Social Assistance and Development, Secretariat of Labor and Entrepreneurship and the São Paulo Transport Company (SPTrans). On a statewide, the Secretariat of Education remains involved. Besides that, the Program counts on external partners, such as the Public Labor Ministry, the International Labor Organization, UNEAFRO (network of articulation and training of youth and adults residentes in peripheral regions), UNISOL (Cooperative and Solidarity Enterprises Center), private schools that granted scholarships and private companies that hired beneficiaries of the Program.

Despite the success, a number of areas have been identified as challenges and limitations. First, the programme attracted low participation of trans men: only three out of the initial 100 participants being trans men – something that officials and participants attributed to the group's lack of visibility. Second, the programme costs of running Transcidadania are high. Transcidadania is relatively expensive considering that it was initially only a 100-person programme, with the city not having ‘the money at the moment to expand the programme beyond the current number of participants.’ Another challenge involves the need to consolidate better conditions of employment for students at the completion of the Program, including promoting non-discriminatory hiring and workplaces, as well as promoting access to higher education. Additionally, any ‘wins’ of the programme will struggle to become permanent and long-lasting as a result of the current political context and increase in conservatism more generally in the country, with increasing calls to repeal laws that protect LGBTQ people. It remains somewhat unclear to what extent the programme managed to change wider perceptions about trans people. Some indications exist that it did – with more frequent public, daytime appearances by trans people, for example. Nonetheless, to the extent that the programme did not build in processes to directly influence wider community awareness and acceptance, it is vulnerable to reversal or cancelation should the political support diminish. Finally, there is need for a long-term and cautious approach. Transcidadania shows that addressing the inclusion of such a highly vulnerable group challenges not only people´s prejudices but also their fundamental value systems. In this insight lies both its transformative potential and a great threat. It is important to take a long-term, cautious and strategic approach to avoid a potential backlash.