“Are we going to accept this silently?”

the current debate on health policies for trans* children and adolescents

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5935/2177-6644.20260033

Abstract

This article discusses the current restrictive laws governing access to healthcare for transgender children and adolescents, emphasizing the Brazilian context between 2023 and 2025. Drawing on ethnographic research and historiographic studies, I analyze: the effects these normative changes have produced in the practices of healthcare professionals and in adolescents’ lives; how the categories of “irreversibility,” “time,” and “linearity” operate in childhood and adolescent transgender experiences; and the ways in which medical knowledge assesses gender through “indices” and “rates” of “detransition” and “regret.” Finally, I speculate on the multiple meanings that “detransition” may carry when understood through bodily projects grounded in unpredictability.

Author Biography

  • Francisco Borges (USP), University of São Paulo

    Transmasculine researcher, PhD candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo, where he researches, with funding from FAPESP, health services for transgender children and adolescents and their families. Master's degree in Social Anthropology (USP), with research on the relationship between Political Economy and Anthropology based on Adam Smith and Émile Durkheim. Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences from the Federal University of the São Francisco Valley, having been a Scientific Initiation scholarship holder (PIBIC/FAPESB) at the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on the Use of Psychoactive Substances (2014-2015). Participated in the project "Limits and Possibilities of Well-being for Black Students in Higher Education Institutions" (2021-2023), as a Technical Training level III scholarship holder (FAPESP).

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Published

2026-06-26

Issue

Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): História das infâncias e juventudes na América Latina: experiências, discursos e políticas sociais

Section

Dossiê | Special Issue | Dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2026 TEL Tempo, Espaço e Linguagem

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How to Cite

“Are we going to accept this silently?”: the current debate on health policies for trans* children and adolescents . (2026). TEL Tempo, Espaço E Linguagem, 17(1), 380-415. https://doi.org/10.5935/2177-6644.20260033