Brazilian trans activist Marcelly Malta Lisboa died in Porto Alegre on July 4. She was 75 and a pioneer in LGBTQIA+ rights.
Marcelly Malta Lisboa was born in 1951 in Mato Leitão, Rio Grande do Sul. She moved to Porto Alegre as a teenager, where she worked as a nursing assistant and sex worker.
In 2011, she won a court ruling allowing her to change her civil registry without sex reassignment surgery, an unprecedented decision in Brazil. She joined Coligay, the country's first LGBT+ organized fan group, and founded the Associação de Travestis e Transexuais do Rio Grande do Sul in 1999.
In the 1980s, she worked with GAPA-RS during the AIDS epidemic. She also advocated for the right of trans people to age. She died in Porto Alegre on July 4.
