Erika Hilton, federal deputy for the state of São Paulo, has been making history in Brazilian politics. She is the first transgender woman to win a seat in the National Congress and was the first trans councilor elected in the city of São Paulo. In the 2022 elections, the parliamentarian managed to be elected with about 256 thousand votes.
With more than 530,000 followers on social media, Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP) seeks to defend agendas that go beyond issues involving the LGBTQIAPN+ community. In an interview with Fervo das Colorsof iBahia portalthe congresswoman highlighted that prejudice, discrimination and hatred often frame the community in a unilateral place.
“It seems that we didn’t get here on the merits of our struggles and political elaboration capacity. It seems that we reached this place through a single agenda and that this is all we know how to talk about, and this is the only space we will have the right to occupy. This is cruel, it has nothing to do with our capacity and it limits us to a place that is typical of prejudice”, emphasized the deputy, who during her mandate already proposed actions to combat hunger, improve public health, the economy and contain climate change.
During the chat, the political representative also pointed out the importance of society understanding that the LGBTQIAP+ community is capable of developing strong and consolidated political projects for the entire country.
“We need to take the segmentary gaze off the bodies of black communities, LGBTQIAP+, and show by “A + B” that we have the ability to discuss the most diverse topics“, he said.
Erika Hilton’s political activity comes from a young age. In fact, her political strength was evident from her teenage years. At the age of 14, she was kicked out of her home after assuming transsexuality and, living on the streets, entered the prostitution market.
After years on the street, the parliamentarian resumed her relationship with her mother, returned home and enrolled in a pre-university entrance course. In student militancy, she identified a vocation for institutional politics.
About this awakening for the area, Hilton highlighted: “It was in this way that I began to realize the urgency and importance of disputing these spaces that historically have always been occupied by a male, white, bourgeois hegemony, which has always been linked to its own interests”.
Importance of representativeness in politics
It is indisputable that the plurality of society needs to be increasingly evident in all spaces, especially in politics. Despite the inclusion still being relatively slow, Erika Hilton pointed out that the beginning of this process is essential for a gradual evolution.
“Being in politics means transformation, hope, a counter-coup, a counter-attack, historical reparation. So, I think this is the importance that is represented when voices like mine arrive in these places that were unimaginable before”.
And he added: “Today we are no longer dreaming, but conquering these places. And this achievement is thanks to an ancestral and historic struggle that we have been waging so far”.
Currently, there are only two trans federal deputies in the National Congress. Duda Salabert (PDT-MG) and Erika Hilton are the pioneers in this transformative construction of national policy.
About this process, Hilton pointed out that, today, it is still not possible to say that the policy is different. “It is not enough just to have Duda Salebert and I there in that space for diversity to be represented in its plurality and totality. We need a larger group and a political, methodological presence in the scenario of the National Congress“, he said.
“And for that we are working, advancing and walking, but unfortunately politics in Brazil continues to be white, male, cisheteronormative, and our arrival in this place represents the signs of change. This is what we are building”, he emphasized.
Erika Hilton – President of the Republic
Is it possible to dream of a transsexual presidential candidacy?! For Erika Hilton, this dream is indeed imaginable.
In the last elections, a campaign on social networks called for the parliamentarian’s candidacy for the highest position in the Executive Branch. With a firm and grounded position, the federal deputy said that she likes to dream and work on this possibility in the imagery of the population. “When we dream, it is a utopia that drives us, that provokes us to build these possibilities”.
When asked if this would happen in the near future, the deputy was cautious: “I can’t answer you now ‘Yes, I’m planning my trajectory’, but I hope that Brazil has the capacity to one day have a black woman, transvestite, from the street corners, who represents and carries the marks of her people in the presidential race. I think this would be a beautiful moment for Brazil”.
And reinforced: “If it’s not me, then it could be someone else with the same characteristics, so that the country can be transformed. But also if I realize that I will be ready after my experience in the National Congress, you can be sure that I will not fail to assume this commitment with myself, with the people and with the country”.