Sociologist Berenice Bento Analyzes De‑Pathologization of Trans Bodies in Brazil

Berenice Bento, a Brazilian sociologist, discusses the recent shift in how trans identities are medically classified. She notes that in June 2018 the World Health Organization removed trans experience from the mental‑disorder chapter, moving it to sexual‑health conditions, and that five years earlier the American Psychiatric Association replaced the term “gender identity disorder” with “gender dysphoria.”

Bento traces the origins of the concept of a “device of transsexuality,” a network of doctors, psychologists, jurists and activists that frames gender difference as a tool for reinforcing heteronormativity. Her doctoral research, conducted jointly at the University of Brasília and the University of Barcelona, examined both a Brazilian university hospital performing gender‑affirming surgeries and the emerging trans activism in Valencia. Her publications, including *A reinvenção do corpo* and *Nossos corpos também mudam*, have become standard references in Latin‑American gender studies.

She warns that despite the terminological changes, the underlying mechanisms that label trans bodies as deviant persist, and that the debate has even re‑entered left‑wing discourse through a renewed biological determinist narrative.