Erica Hilton, the first Black transgender woman elected to Brazil’s Congress, was preparing to speak at the annual Brazil Conference to be held at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in April 2025.
As part of his official diplomatic mission, Mr. Hilton required a diplomatic visa to enter the United States. However, the US Embassy in Brasilia issued a document with apparent contradictions. The congressman’s gender is listed as “male,” in direct contradiction to Brazil’s official identity card, which legally recognizes her gender as “female.”
In response, Hilton withdrew from the conference and submitted a formal report to the United Nations, calling the incident a violation of the Brazilian state’s diplomatic immunity and an act of systematic transphobia. Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs last month issued the congresswoman a new diplomatic passport in a symbolic act of reparation, a move aimed at reaffirming her official status and legal status following the US embassy’s actions.
Despite Brazil’s restorative attitude, Hilton told the Washington Blade that she has no intention of entering the United States in the near future, at least not while President Donald Trump is in the White House.
“I’m worried about what will happen to people like me under an administration like Donald Trump’s,” Hilton said. “It is an authoritarian and anti-democratic government that does not respect international law.”
“For example, we have seen how ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has used extreme violence against people who hold tourist visas and are simply visiting this country,” she added. “There are deep-seated fears about how people will be treated by immigration authorities and law enforcement. All of this is terrifying and has convinced me that no one should ever set foot in the United States as long as a fascist government is in power.”
Although his travel to the United States remains on hold, the congressman has been unusually active in Brazil.
Hilton made history again last month when she became the first trans woman to chair the House Women’s Rights Committee. The appointment marks the first time a transgender person will lead a standing committee in Brazil’s Congress and is the latest milestone in a career defined by a pioneering spirit.
“This is a milestone in my story. It’s a milestone for a dreamy girl who was forced to do sex work on the street corner to survive at the age of 14, and today she comes back to make peace with her past. But I look back from where I’m standing and realize that I’m still on the street corner. “I’m pointing to those who are and reminding them that we can do more. We can build something much bigger than the limited space that hate and discrimination have reserved for us,” she said. blade.
Erica Hilton speaks at a rally for current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held in Sao Paulo on October 5, 2022. She had been elected to the Brazilian Congress two days earlier. (Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
Unlike the US Women’s Caucus, which functions primarily as an advocacy and lobbying forum, Brazil’s Women’s Rights Commission wields significant organizational power. Within Brazil’s legislative system, this body holds “decisive powers,” special powers that allow it to bypass the general chamber of the House of Representatives. If the committee approves the bill, it can be sent directly to the Senate for a vote, bypassing the full chamber.
Beyond this autonomy, the commission has de facto pocket veto power. If the proposal is rejected on constitutional grounds or considered harmful to the protection of women, the bill will be immediately shelved. This powerful committee has been a key vehicle for landmark legislation such as the Equal Pay Act (Law 14,611/23) and important legislation targeting political harassment of women.
Defining femininity beyond biology
Hilton emphasizes that her election as chair of the Women’s Rights Commission was not an easy feat, but an uphill battle. She tried to convince her colleagues that she was not only a strong candidate, but an essential one, and a battle began within her own party.
After her nomination, hostilities significantly intensified.
What he denounced was orchestrated by far-right conservative sectors, and a wave of coordinated and sponsored attacks that reached beyond social media and into the halls of Congress. The rhetoric used by her opponents relied heavily on biological determinism, a strategy that attributes womanhood to reproductive and genetic characteristics.
Hilton’s election on March 11 exposed deep rifts in Congress.
The result, with 11 votes in her favor and 10 MPs casting blank votes, was a clear form of protest. In the context of these internal elections, blank votes did not indicate indecision. Rather, they represented a calculated attempt by the opposition to strip the incoming speaker of her political legitimacy. This is a clear warning that Ms. Hilton will face fierce institutional resistance throughout her term, a reality that has already become clear in her first weeks at the helm of the committee.
Hilton promised inclusive leadership in his inaugural address.
“Here we address issues facing poor women, Black women, trans women, cis women, mothers, breastfeeding women — all of them, without exception,” she said.
But the most resonant moment of her speech was her historic tribute to Sojourner Truth, the black abolitionist and human rights activist who in 1851 published the iconic “Am I Not a Woman?” In her speech “Rephrasing the Truth” at the U.S. Women’s Rights Convention, Hilton argued that modern transphobia is deeply rooted in 19th century racism.
“The truth was that she was a cisgender woman and a mother, but in that context her biology did not give her the right to challenge her legitimacy or the status quo of women on the basis of race. “We must remember the pseudoscience of eugenicists who considered black people inferior, and the brutal gynecological experiments performed on enslaved women, who were not considered ‘women’ even in society at the time,” Hilton said. Blade explains the historical framework behind the speech.
“As trans women and cross-dressers, we are the targets of this historic moment,” she added. “I quoted the words of truth to remind us that we are all victims of the same systematic oppression and denial of the same rights to our own identities. This did not start with us. Yesterday she was targeted because of the color of her skin, today I am targeted because of the anatomy of my body.”
Mr. Hilton concluded his inaugural address by reaffirming that his appointment as chairman will make visible the identities that the committee has historically ignored. She stressed that the fight against transgender people is a matter of survival in a country that leads the world in rates of violence against this community.
“We no longer accept to be made invisible. We no longer accept to have our identities violated. We refuse to live in a country that leads the world in killing us by shooting us in the face, ripping out our hearts, and dragging us out into the streets,” she declared.
Since Hilton took over as chair, committee meetings have been marked by an atmosphere of chaos and legislative gridlock, a dire situation for a country that has set a record for female murders in the past year. In Brazil, femicide is a special legal classification of gender-motivated murders of women, intended to ensure harsher criminal penalties.
Opposition MPs, who had rarely attended committee meetings before Mr Hilton’s election, began attending en masse to coordinate attacks against him, prioritizing obstruction over the urgent need to address gender-based violence.
Tensions reached a climax on April 8 when right-wing lawmaker Rosana Valle threatened Hilton by bringing up one of the country’s most important legal provisions, the María da Peña Law. Recognized by the United Nations as one of the most progressive laws in the world, this law was designed to protect women from domestic and family violence.
Describing the move as a “mockery” by Hilton, Vallée said he would invoke the law against the chairman himself if he ever confronted Hilton, claiming he had “manly strength”.
“At the end of the day, their goal is to prevent me from getting results. They’re trying to delay the agenda so they can later claim, ‘Look, she’s not doing anything for women, she’s not discussing anything that’s relevant.’ It’s not a lack. It’s a systematic effort to block progress. But I’ve already developed a strategy to overcome this obstacle. We’re going to move forward and get the really important projects off the ground,” Hilton told the Blade.
MAGA’s strategy in Brazil
Transphobia is nothing new in Brazil.
For years, the country has consistently ranked as the world’s deadliest country for transgender people. According to the National Transvestite and Transsexual Association (ANTRA), 122 deaths were recorded in 2024. But the vitriol that surfaced on social media after Hilton was elected chairwoman is surprisingly familiar. The arguments and tactics being deployed in Brazil are a mirror image of the far-right strategies currently being used in the United States.
Brazilian lawmakers are deliberately employing a “culture war” strategy to fuel the MAGA movement. This includes stoking moral panic over bathroom access, pathologising gender identity, and attempting to exclude transgender women from competitive sports.
For Hilton, Trump is a catalyst.
“When a government with the influence and power of the United States uses state institutions to roll back rights, it creates a ripple effect that incites violence around the world. It feels like our historic achievements are being systematically dismantled,” Hilton said.
“Since the day after Inauguration Day, the Trump administration has signed executive orders denying fundamental rights, dehumanizing the transgender community, and issuing public statements branding us ‘enemies of society,'” she added. “The U.S. government legitimizes, incites, and encourages hatred directed against already marginalized groups. In doing so, it fuels that hatred even further by taking such rhetoric out of the shadows of anonymity and putting it into the mouth of the president of a global superpower.”
protect hard-won rights
In October, Brazilians head to the polls in a high-stakes general election that will decide the presidency and the composition of Congress.
Hilton predicts an election season with increased violence and targeted attacks against transgender people. She also points out that the current global climate requires greater mobilization to defend the hard-won rights of the LGBTQ community.
“The situation is so volatile and confusing that we cannot see even a glimmer of opportunity to establish new rights,” Hilton told the Blade. “For now, we must focus on defending existing protections, so we have a chance to win new victories in the future. History is cyclical. At first there are great waves of violence, repression and attacks. But then waves of victory come.”
Meanwhile, Hilton remains on the front lines of this battleground, where she knows stepping into the spotlight will bring more glory than pain and violence. But that doesn’t seem to be a burden to her.
“In a way, the cruelty of life was kind to me,” Hilton recalls. “By forcing me to go through that brutal experience when I was still a child, you kindly taught me how to survive it. Now that I’m immune, I’m ready to face these obstacles.”
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
