Erika Hilton, a Black transgender congresswoman in Brazil, announced that she's taking legal action against Donald Trump as a result of being issued a U.S. visa with "male" as her gender marker — and she's also committed to taking the case to the United Nations.
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In 2020 Hilton was elected as a councilwoman in São Paulo, Brazil, and became the first-ever trans woman to be elected to the Municipal Chamber of São Paulo. With a grand total of 50,508 votes, Hilton was also the most-voted council member in Brazil — nationwide — that year.
In 2023 Hilton and Duda Salabert were elected into Brazil's National Congress and both became the first trans women to do so (via Time). For context, Hilton became a congresswoman after receiving a whopping 256,903 votes, G1 reports.
In the early hours of Wednesday, Folha de S. Paulo reported that Hilton intends to take legal action against Trump after being issued a U.S. visa that misgendered her as "male." The report also noted that the congresswoman will take this matter to the U.N., arguing that changing her gender marker on a U.S. visa is "transphobic and disrespectful to her Brazilian civil records."
"[Hilton] claims that she presented her birth certificate and diplomatic passport, both of which identify her as a woman, during the process to obtain the new document," the article reads.
"This is not just a case of transphobia. This is a document being torn up without the slightest shame," Hilton told Folha de S. Paulo. "I will take legal action against [U.S.] President Donald Trump at the U.N. and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."
The Folha report underscored that the Embassy of the United States in Brasília had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publishing. Hilton added, "We want Itamaraty [Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Brazil] to call the Embassy and provide explanations."
As reported, Hilton applied for an updated U.S. visa because she was scheduled to travel to the U.S. on Saturday, to speak as a panelist at a conference organized by the Brazilian community of Harvard and MIT. However, Hilton has now given up on the trip. "I was concerned about the treatment I would receive at the airport from American authorities, given that the name is feminine, and the gender described [on the visa] was masculine," she explained. "I was scared, to be honest. And I didn't accept subjecting myself to that kind of thing."
Following that bombshell report from Folha, Hilton took to her own Instagram page and spoke directly with her 3.6 million followers. The congresswoman wrote:
"Yes, it's true. I was classified as 'male' by the US government when I went to get my visa to attend the Brazil Conference at Harvard University and MIT.
It doesn't surprise me. This has been happening in the documents of trans people in the US for a few weeks now.
I'm also not surprised by the level of hatred and fixation these people have with trans people. After all, the documents I presented are rectified, and I'm registered as a woman even on my birth certificate.
In other words, they're ignoring official documents from other sovereign nations, even from a diplomatic representative, to find out if the person, at some point, had a different registration.
At the end of the day, I'm a Brazilian citizen, and my rights are guaranteed, and my existence is respected by our own constitution, legislation and jurisprudence. And if the U.S. embassy has something to say, they should say it quietly, inside their buildings — which is surrounded on by [the Brazilian legal system].
What worries me is that a country is ignoring official documents and the existence of its own citizens, altering them according to the narrative and desires of the [U.S.] President to take away [our] rights.
Because this will not stop with us or affect only trans people, the list of targets for these people is immense.
This list of targets continues to grow. It is part of a global political agenda based on hatred, and it doesn't stop in the U.S. In Brazil, however, we've already defeated a political agenda of hate before. And we will defeat it as many
times as necessary."
This story is still developing…
