Brazilian social media influencer Bianca Barreto was sentenced to two years of conditional liberty and fined 20,000 reais ($3,900), having been accused of criminal acts of discrimination due to the use of male pronouns to address transgender federal lawmaker Duda Salabert.
Judge Eduarda de Lima Vidal of the 9th Criminal Court of Salvador, Bahia, found Barreto guilty on July 29, according to Gazeta do Povo. Judge Vidal said that the influence on social networks committed the crime as she used the opposite gender deliberately and adversely for the self-defined one. The news was first reported by Reduxx.
According to the case, in August 2024, Barreto released a video criticizing the previous legal action brought against the conservative Rep. Nikolas Ferreira, who addressed transgender Rep. Duda Salabert in masculine terms. Barreto promised to continue addressing the representative in that manner, stating that “a man is a man, a woman is a woman” and mentioning that Salabert is married to a woman and has a kid, according to Gazeta do Povo.
Salabert, a member of the socialist left-wing party PSOL representing Minas Gerais, has worked in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies since 2023. She and Rep. Erika Hilton are the first representatives of their gender among the candidates elected in Brazil’s lower house in the 2022 election. Before, Salabert worked in the Belo Horizonte city council, being the first transgender representative there.
This case is based on the Supreme Federal Court decision made in 2019, according to which acts of homophobia and transphobia in Brazil are included in its racism laws until separate legislation is passed by Congress. Violations of that law can be punished with imprisonment and do not allow pretrial release. Brazilian journalists and analysts often use the term “social racism” referring to this category of crimes.
In her verdict, Judge Vidal wrote that the intentional use of birth sex to humiliate and denigrate the transgender woman in public is beyond any normal opinion, as such conduct cannot be considered the protection of the freedom of speech and denies Salabert’s recognition as an identity and citizenship.
Under the open regime as defined by Brazilian legislation, the influencer will be under constant supervision of the court without physical detention. The trial court issues such a verdict, which can be appealed to higher courts.
Barreto’s attorneys are going to ask higher courts to review this case within the legal deadline. According to the lawyers’ arguments, the influencer did not support any acts of violence, persecution, or hatred, and the case should be considered in terms of freedom of speech, personal beliefs, and religious practices. The defense says that it accepts the court decision but disagrees with the interpretation of the evidence.
The previous case related to Ferreira, a well-known conservative politician on social networks, turned out to be unsuccessful for Salabert. The criminal action filed by her against Rep. Ferreira, who had promised to address her in masculine terms, was dismissed by the court on procedural grounds.
In another civil case, Ferreira was ordered in 2023 to compensate Salabert 80,000 reais in damages, a sum that was reduced to 30,000 reais on appeal, according to Reduxx.
