(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A Brazilian legislator last week mocked one of LGBT activists’ core arguments in favor of transgenderism with a simple demonstration during a state assembly session in São Paulo.
Faviana Bolsonaro, a 32-year-old female member of the country’s right-leaning Liberal Party, took the dais on Wednesday to protest the appointment of Erika Hilton, a biological-male transgender activist, to the Chamber of Deputies, equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hilton, who is black, is a member of the opposing Socialism and Liberty Party.
A viral video showed that Bolsonaro (who changed her name in solidarity with former conservative president Jair Bolsonaro, no relation) applied blackface during her speech to underscore the point that wishful thinking could not change one’s inherent identity.
“I am a white woman. I’ve had the privileges of a white person my whole life,” she said, according to a translation from the original Portuguese. “Now, at 32, I decide to paint myself, to disguise myself as a black person … and I ask you: did I become black? Do I feel the pain that black people have suffered? … No.”
This post is misleading, not because you must agree with Fabiana Bolsonaro, but because it distorts what she actually said.
Here are her own words, translated as faithfully as possible:
“I am a white woman. I’ve had the privileges of a white person my whole life.”
“Now, at…
— Jose Alfredo 🇧🇷🔺 (@josealfredobh) March 20, 2026
Biographical details are unclear as to when and if Hilton fully transitioned to “female,” although reports suggest that the former sex worker has been living as a woman since at least 2015, when Hilton’s LGBT activism first rose to prominence.
Hilton and another transgender legislator, Duda Salabert, both entered the national parliament following Brazil’s highly controversial 2022 election, the equivalent of the 2020 election in the U.S., in which far-left President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ousted Jair Bolsonaro — known as the “Trump of the Tropics” — under dubious circumstances.
Regardless of the electoral legitimacy, though, Fabiana Bolsonaro argued that Hilton was unfit to lead on women’s issues by virtue of lived experiences — or a lack thereof.
“It doesn’t matter if I paint myself — I don’t know what you went through,” she said. “That’s why I cannot lead that agenda … because I am not black.”
She added a point that critics of the transgender agenda often seek to make: that many opponents are perfectly willing to respect an individual’s private choice to live a transgender lifestyle, so long as doing so does not intrude upon the rights of others who refuse to indulge it.
“Trans people must be respected. … I don’t want any trans person to suffer discrimination,” Bolsonaro noted.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
