‘Right to choose’, says judge on veto in hiring heterosexual interns

Adrisa De Góes – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS (AM) – The judge Mario Soares Caymmi Gomes explained why he vetoed the hiring of heterosexual cisgender people, i.e., those who identify with their biological gender, for internship positions in the Court of Justice of Bahia (TJ-BA). The public notice was suspended earlier this year by the Chief Justice José Rocha Rotondano, under the argument of “reverse prejudice” against heterosexuals.

Gomes’ statement happened during an interview on the Bahia Legislative Assembly Radio (Rádio Alba), on May 5, but it gained repercussion on social networks on Friday, 9. The judge is responsible for the 12th Court of Consumer Relations in the state and president of the Commission for the Promotion of Equality and Affirmative Policies in Gender and Sexual Orientation Issues (Cogen) of TJ-BA.

“I am not a lesser judge for being gay, I don’t feel inferior to anyone, I don’t feel coerced to do anything that other colleagues also do. So, if they can choose cisgender, heterosexual people, I also feel entitled to reserve my vacancies, with whom I want to work, for non-binary people, transgender, gays, ‘dyke’… In short, everyone who is part of this spectrum”, said the magistrate.

The public notice, released in January 2023, was aimed at recruiting students to fill three internship positions in the area of Law, for the office of Judge Mário Gomes. The selection, according to the document, was exclusive to the LGBTQIAP+ public (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender/Transsexual/Transvestite, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual) and preferably black.

The selection was justified as an “affirmative measure to promote gender and sexual orientation diversity within the Judiciary of the State of Bahia. In addition, the announcement did not allow the hiring, “under any circumstances, of cisgender heterosexual people”.

An uncomfortable situation

During the statement, the judge Mário Soares Caymmi Gomes also affirmed that the annulment of the public notice, by the judge Jose Rotondano, “bothered him deeply”. That’s because the decision was made by a magistrate who, according to the jurist, is also homosexual, although he doesn’t assume his sexual orientation publicly.

“Since we are dealing with this relevant topic, this is not gossip. I think it has to do with the case. I know he is gay because he had an affair with my husband, before my husband met me. He lived with a guy who was elected, I don’t know if he still is, a councilman in the city Mata de São João (…) This case is emblematic, because it shows the problem of you assuming [homosexual] in a job”, she said.

Suspension of the selection

In the decision, the general corregedor of TJ-BA, José Rocha Rotondano, points out the points of the edital that made him demand the suspension. “[The edict] appears to have incurred mistakes, both in the way it was written and in the adoption of exclusionary rules in disproportionality,” he says.

The magistrate also sees, as a problem, the requirement of the competition to determine one month of voluntary unpaid work to the candidates for the vacancy. “It sounds contradictory enough to require a candidate to do unpaid voluntary internships”.

The judge affirms that affirmative policies establish a quota or some criterion, but the absolute prohibition of candidates belonging to other groups, even if they are in the majority, “cannot be justified”. For him, the ban on heterosexual candidates is “general and abstract” and argues: “In a superficial analysis, the ban imposed does not seem reasonable”.

Read more: Government promotes inclusion and respect for LGBTQIA+ people in institutional video