Transgender history in Brazil comprises the history of transgender (transsexual, third gender, and travesti) people in Brazil and their struggles and organization from the pre-colonial period to the modern day. Before Brazil's colonization, indigenous peoples respected various transmasculine and transfeminine third genders; colonization included public executions of trans people and the systematic imposition of the Western gender binary. In the late 1800s, there were repeated arrests of Black travestis and occasional sensationalized news reports of travestis. By the 1920s there were popular drag queens and in the 1950s travestis became popular stars in the theater and revue shows. From the 1960s onward, LGBT periodicals publicly discussed the issues facing travestis and transsexuals.

The military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985) carried out mass targeted arrests and media censorship of travestis. Many emigrated to Paris and the majority who remained were pressured into sex work. In the latter half of the dictatorship, censorship loosened and travestis began to re-enter the theatre and organize openly. After the dictatorship, mass arrests continued along with extrajudicial killings by the military and vigilante groups. The homosexual rights movement distanced itself from travestis for respectability. In 1992, the first political travesti organization was created and began advocating for HIV care and against police brutality. Over the next decade, more trans organizations were created and began to partner with gay and lesbian organizations.

In 1997 gender-affirming surgeries were approved on an experimental basis. In 2008 the surgeries began to be covered by the Unified Health System with strict requirements and in 2009 the courts established a right to change name and gender on birth certificates after surgery. In 2017, the requirement for name change became judicial recognition of transgender identity, and in 2019 self-attestation. Since Transgender Europe began recording data in 2008, Brazil has had the highest global annual rates of murders of trans people.

In the 16th century, Jesuit priests recorded encounters with indigenous transmasculine people who lived as men, took wives, and took offense at being called women. In 1587, the Descriptive Treatise of Brazil [pt] described cudinas, transfeminine indigenous people who were treated as women. They lived as women from a young age, took husbands, and joined menstruating women when exiled to the corner of the village. From 1536 to 1821 "sodomy" was punished under the Portuguese Inquisition with imprisonment, torture, and confiscation of assets. Colonization was framed by the colonizers as necessary to regulate the practices of the indigenous considered "against nature" such as "sodomy".

Xica Manicongo [pt], an African slave, was the first travesti recorded in Brazil; she worked as a cobbler and in 1591 was charged by the Portuguese Inquisition for dressing as a woman and prostitution. Another African travesti, Joane, was accused of the same during the visit. The French Capuchin priest Yves d'Evreux [fr] provided an account of meeting a "hermaphrodite" (now referred to as Tibira do Maranhão) between 1613 and 1614 who was forced into hiding as the French "were looking for him and to his equals to kill them and to purify the land of their cruelties" in the name of the Catholic church; when caught they were taken to the Fort of São Luís, tied to a cannon, and shot in front of local indigenous leaders. One was recorded by Yves as telling Tibira that "if you want to have long hair in Heaven and the body of a woman rather than that of a man, ask Tupan to give you the body of a woman and you will be resurrected as a woman, and there in Heaven you will be alongside women and not men".

In 1711, the first constitution of the Archbishop of Bahia established a punishment of a 100 cruzados fine and, arbitrarily dependent on the situation, banishment for "cross-dressing" as a woman. In the 1750s the Portuguese established administrative control of sex and gender in daily life, enforcing heterosexuality and adhesion to Western gender norms and roles. Over the next 100 years in Brazil there were repeated arrests for "cross-dressing", mostly of black travestis. In the second half of the 19th century, Brazilian newspapers reported sensationalized accounts of travestis and would publicize their names and addresses.

In 1910, in Die Transvestiten (Transvestites), Magnus Hirschfeld recounted the story of Dina Alma de Paradeda, a Brazilian socialite who became a popular figure in Berlin's balls and who he claimed to have known personally; she died in 1906 by suicide rather than comply with a medical assistant's order to undress and undergo a medical examination. In the 1920s and 30s, drag queens such as John Bridges and Aymond had popular acts where they impersonated contemporary female stars. In the 1950s and 60s, gay bars started to open in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro and travestis gained more acceptance in the theater, having previously been relegated to Carnival and drag balls.

In the 1950s revue shows were at the height of their popularity. In 1953, Ivaná Monteiro Damião became of star of such shows and appeared in movies as a woman in the 50s and 60s. She was presented as a visiting French artist despite being Portuguese and living for a long time in Rio de Janeiro. At first, her sex was hidden, until productors started utilizing it in their marketing. She is frequently cited as the first famous travesti in Brazilian theater, but she gave the credit for that to Aymond. In 1959, the magazine O Cruzeiro published a story about Mário da Silva, a trans man who at 18 years old received gender-affirming surgery in his home city of Itajaí. In 1963, the gay magazine O Snob [pt] discussed different contemporary gender identities in Rio, which included bichas, bofes, bonecas, and entendidos.