Suzy and the selectivity of ideological justice.

The case of the inmate "Suzy" provoked diverse reactions. The report shown on "Fantástico," where Dr. Dráuzio Varela showed the reality of transgender inmates in Brazilian prisons, sparked a wave of emotion and reflection on the loneliness of incarcerated trans people. The hug he gave Rafael Tadeu de Oliveira dos Santos, "Suzy," was already dividing opinions, even before the crime he committed came to light. 

The fact that she raped, murdered, and concealed the body of a 9-year-old child dismantles any narrative that attributes "Suzy's" imprisonment for over eight years without visits to sexual prejudice. Or at least it should. What happens is that ideologies, in some cases, are overriding reason and the observation of facts. Whether they are right-wing, left-wing, centrist, perpendicular, or opposite to the hypotenuse.

Crimes are beginning to be relativized, due to ideological issues and activism for causes. If someone thinks like me, belongs to my gender, my ethnicity, shares my political or religious ideology, supports the same team, enjoys the same musical genre, or looks like me, the weight of my judgment is lighter. Unconsciously, it borders on complicity. Whether under the guise of the opportunity for the individual's resocialization, or through approval of the criminal's modus operandi.

The far right adores murderous and bloodthirsty torturers. The current President has already raised a toast to the memory of General Ustra, a notorious criminal from the dictatorship era, right in the National Congress. He didn't leave there in handcuffs because we are a banana republic. His sons have posed wearing t-shirts bearing the image of the same murderous and cowardly General, as if they were wearing the uniform of a national institution. Not to mention the laudatory references he has made to Pinochet, Stroessner, and paramilitary organizations operating in the country.

These people and their supporters point the finger at "Suzy" as if she were different from their heroes. The President called for life imprisonment for her. The Minister of Education wished that Dráuzio Varela would burn in hell for embracing her. In other words, a good bandit is a bandit who thinks like me. On the other hand, a large part of our left, which sees these dictators as monsters, which is indeed true, decided to wear the "Suzy" shirt as a banner of transgender activism.

To claim transphobic motivation in the criticisms made against the inmate, almost ignoring the crime he committed, is to want to emerge from a dark sea, using an irresponsible ideology as a life jacket. It's almost a reverse Bolsonaroism. And this should frighten us. If we campaigned against any team hiring goalkeeper Bruno, if we couldn't swallow Guilherme de Pádua's smile as a new creature in Christ Jesus, if Suzane Richtoffenn's prison releases distress us, how can we expect "Suzy" to be seen with compassion?

Not that she doesn't deserve it. And if she does, only God knows. However, the issue here is the logic of the reasoning. Or the lack thereof. Killing a 9-year-old child with extreme cruelty is a heinous crime. And in this case, it doesn't matter if the perpetrator is black, white, rich, poor, left-wing, right-wing, heterosexual, or transgender. Because it's very rare to have homosexuals, transvestites, or transgender people involved in this type of crime.

Normally, they are the victims of crimes like this. Something that a large part of our Christian, conservative, traditional, hypocritical, and homophobic society ignores and downplays. Because many, in the obscurity of their prejudiced thoughts, believe that these individuals chose to meet this end. To condemn the hug that Dr. Drauzio Varela gave to "Suzy" is emotional tyranny. Anyone has the freedom to hug whomever they want, even if the person being hugged is a criminal like "Suzy." To try to associate this hug with the forgiveness that Jesus Christ granted to the thief who was being crucified beside him, as I saw some attempting to do, is intellectual dishonesty.

Unfortunately, both the saga of Jesus Christ embracing everyone who commits a crime, and that of the God above all, who believes that a good criminal is a dead criminal, have come to be used as punctuation in the ideological discursive ethos. Each in its own pole and according to its convenience. This proves how an excess of ideology can make us lose reason and common sense.

If “Suzy” doesn’t deserve flowers, she also doesn’t need to be stoned. She should simply serve her full sentence as punishment for the monstrous crime she committed. Her solitude in prison is the result of what she sowed. Her rehabilitation, if it happens, will be questioned regardless of the path she chooses to follow outside of prison. The truth is, “Suzy’s” life matters little to most people. Both to those who promote her lynching and to those who try to excuse her actions.

It is being used as an argument in defense of distinct principles which, despite being extreme, end up meeting, without realizing it, at the same point of convergence: that of selective and ideological justice. Will we flee to the center or to the hills?