A Brazilian woman and her daughter have undergone gender transition to become father and son.
The woman is now known as Raphael Batista, 38, while her daughter has now become Gustavo Batista, 10.
The duo, from Sao Paolo, Brazil, were born with female biological characteristics before the change.
Raphael stopped identifying as female last year and asked her family, friends and acquaintance to start referring to her as male.
Raphael posted a clip on Instagram in September 2024, in which he discussed gender identity.
She captioned it: “If I have dysphoria in my body? And the answer is yes.” (Translated from Portuguese.
Raphael said his child Gustavo did not influence him to go for the change. He told G1: “It didn’t have any influence, but he [Gustavo] gave me strength and courage to face [the transition].”
Raphael and Gustavo shared their story with their nearly 25,000 Instagram followers, many of whom are supporting them in their journey.
The father and son criticised those who were still using their “dead names” – the names they went by when they identified as women.
“Even though it is our right to have the social name respected in practice, respect rarely happens in fact,” the caption reads as translated into English.
Gustavo is a student and also works as an actor, who has played both transgender and cisgender characters in films.
Gustavo receives treatment at the Transdisciplinary Outpatient Clinic for Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation at the Institute of Psychiatry and the Pediatric Endocrinology Unit at the Children’s Institute of the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo.
The United Kingdom has recently stopped the use of puberty blockers indefinitely among children under-18 who think they are transgender.
The UK announced the ban in December 2024 because of safety concerns.
A report by the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) contained expert advice that there is “currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children”.
CHM recommended indefinite restrictions while work is done to ensure the safety of children and young people.
