The Best Interests of the Child and the Debate Over Gender Identity
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| Fonte: direção e conceito: Filosofia do cuidado íntimo |
As a former member of the Child Protection Council in Salvador, Brazil, I spent years dealing with cases involving neglect, domestic violence, sexual abuse, abandonment, and violations of children's rights. Those experiences led me to reflect on an issue that is rarely discussed from the perspective of child protection: how changing social concepts may affect the institutions and relationships that safeguard children.
Recently, I read a news report about a legally recognized transgender woman accused of sexually abusing a child. My reaction went beyond the outrage that any such crime naturally provokes. What caught my attention was the immediate association between the word woman and an act that has historically stood in stark contrast to the role women have occupied within child protection networks.
Child protection does not begin with government agencies. It begins at home and within communities. It is sustained by mothers, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, neighbors, caregivers, social workers, psychologists, prosecutors, and countless other women who perform roles of care, support, and protection.
From an early age, children are taught to associate women with safety and assistance. A lost child in a shopping center is often instructed to seek help from a female employee or a mother with children. A child experiencing abuse frequently makes their first disclosure to a trusted female teacher, relative, or caregiver. In schools, social services, and child protection agencies, women make up a significant portion of the workforce.
This social trust did not emerge by decree. It developed over generations through lived experience and observation.
Official data from Brazil's Ministry of Health reveal a reality that cannot be ignored. Between 2015 and 2021, nearly 203,000 cases of sexual violence against children and adolescents were officially reported. Of these, more than 83,000 involved children and nearly 120,000 involved adolescents.
Perhaps the most significant finding concerns the profile of offenders. According to the Ministry's epidemiological report, more than 81 percent of perpetrators of sexual violence against children aged zero to nine were male. Among adolescents aged ten to nineteen, the proportion exceeded 86 percent. In addition, family members and acquaintances accounted for the majority of reported assaults.
These figures help explain why parents have historically developed protective strategies based on observable patterns of risk. The common advice to seek assistance from a female teacher, caregiver, or trusted woman in moments of vulnerability did not emerge from abstract theories. It emerged from accumulated social experience.
These realities must also be considered in light of the legal principles that guide child protection.
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Brazil's Child and Adolescent Statute incorporates what is known as the Principle of Absolute Priority, which establishes that the rights and protection of children must take precedence over competing interests. Likewise, the Best Interests of the Child principle serves as a guiding standard for judges, social workers, prosecutors, and child protection professionals, requiring them to choose the course of action that offers the greatest possible safety and benefit to children.
Viewed through this lens, discussions about identity, social recognition, and changing definitions cannot be evaluated solely through the interests of adults. The central question must be different: Which interpretation provides the greatest protection for children? Which approach minimizes risk? Which policies strengthen trust and enhance the effectiveness of child protection systems?
This is where a difficult but legitimate question arises.
What happens when the legal or social definition of woman expands to include biological males who identify as women?
This question is not about human dignity. Every person deserves dignity, respect, and protection under the law. Rather, the question concerns the criteria upon which social trust is built.
Trust is a mechanism of social protection. It does not emerge from declarations alone; it develops through repeated observations of behavior over time. When parents teach their children to seek help from women in moments of danger, they are relying on patterns that have historically informed assessments of safety and risk.
If the category of woman becomes entirely independent of biological sex, new questions inevitably arise. Should the same guidance continue to be given to children? Do the traditional assumptions underlying those recommendations remain valid? Can social trust that developed around one category be transferred unchanged to another?
These questions deserve serious consideration because child protection requires prudence.
There is also a practical issue that is often overlooked. Children do not possess the cognitive maturity necessary to evaluate complex questions of identity, legal status, or competing philosophical frameworks. They rely on simple guidance from adults. They depend upon institutions to establish clear standards that maximize their safety.
This concern is not merely theoretical. In several countries, policymakers, prison officials, educators, and child welfare professionals have debated the implications of self-identification policies in sex-segregated spaces. The discussion often centers on how to balance respect for individual identity with the responsibility to assess and manage risk.
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The purpose of raising these concerns is not to suggest that transgender individuals are inherently dangerous. Such a claim would be both inaccurate and unfair. The real issue is whether child protection systems should be built primarily around declared identities or around objective risk assessment.
The distinction matters because public policy exists not only to recognize individuals but also to manage uncertainty and prevent harm.
When child protection law embraces the principles of Absolute Priority and the Best Interests of the Child, it establishes a clear hierarchy of obligations. In situations where competing interests arise, the welfare and safety of children must come first.
For this reason, I believe legislatures should engage in a broader public discussion about how contemporary gender identity policies interact with child protection frameworks.
Modern societies have long recognized categories such as men, women, children, adolescents, and sexual minorities for legal and policy purposes. The emergence of transgender identity as a distinct social category raises new questions that deserve transparent, evidence-based examination.
Perhaps the time has come to consider whether transgender identity should continue to be recognized as a distinct category worthy of dignity, legal protection, and freedom from discrimination, without necessarily requiring the elimination of sex-based categories that continue to structure public statistics, sports, healthcare policies, safeguarding practices, and child protection systems.
This is not a debate about denying anyone's humanity.
It is a debate about balancing rights, preserving conceptual clarity in public policy, and ensuring that the principle of the child's best interests remains the guiding standard in decisions that affect the safety and well-being of children.
If there is any uncertainty regarding the potential consequences of these policy changes, the responsibility of democratic institutions is not to suppress discussion but to encourage it openly, responsibly, and respectfully.
When the protection of children is at stake, prudence is not prejudice. It is a moral, legal, and civic obligation.
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