João W. Nery

João W. Nery (12 February 1950 – 26 October 2018), was a Brazilian writer, psychologist, and LGBT activist. He was the first transgender man to have undergone sex-change surgery in Brazil; Dr. Roberto Farina performed the surgery in 1977.

Biography
Nery became an LGBT rights activist, especially of the trans population. A bill by congressman Jean Wyllys and congresswoman Erika Kokay bears his name. Based on the Argentine Identity and Gender Law, the project guarantees the right to recognize the gender identity of all transgender people in Brazil, without the need for judicial authorization, medical or psychological reports, surgery or hormone treatment.

In August 2017, Nery was discovered to have a lung cancer. Smoking since he was 15 years old, he underwent chemotherapy. In September 2018, Nery revealed on social networks that cancer had hit the brain; he died in Niteroi, on 26 October 2018, aged 68.