Duda Salabert Rosa is a Brazilian politician,

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

, and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. In 2020, she became the first

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

person to serve on the city council of Belo Horizonte after campaigning as a Democratic Labour Party candidate. She was elected with over 37,000 votes, more than any city council candidate in the history of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

at the time. Since 2023, she has represented the state of Minas Gerais as a

federal deputy A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-national ...

Personal life

Salabert began working as a teacher in 2002. She cofounded

Transvest Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...

, a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

focused on combating

transphobia Transphobia consists of negative attitudes, feelings, or actions towards transgender or transsexual people, or transness in general. Transphobia can include fear, aversion, hatred, violence or anger towards people who do not conform to socia ...

. Duda is a

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

, married to Raíssa. In 2019, they had a child and chose a gender-neutral name for

them Them or THEM, a third-person singular or plural accusative personal pronoun, may refer to: Books * ''Them'' (novel), 3rd volume (1969) in American Joyce Carol Oates' ''Wonderland Quartet'' * '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'', 2003 non-fict ...

. Duda is

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

Political activity

In 2018, Salabert campaigned as a

Socialism and Liberty Party The Socialism and Liberty Party (, ; PSOL ) is a left-wing political party in Brazil. The party describes itself as socialist and democratic. The party leader is Paula Coradi and the federal deputies Ivan Valente, Talíria Petrone, Sâmi ...

candidate to represent the state of Minas Gerais in the

Brazilian Senate The Federal Senate () is the upper house of the National Congress of Brazil. When created under the Imperial Constitution in 1824, it was based on the House of Lords of the British Parliament, but since the Proclamation of the Republic in ...

. Salabert said that she had received invitations to campaign for other offices but chose the Senate as a form of provocation, noting that the

etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of the term ''senate'' relates to

men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...

and that "if it is a space made for gentlemen, a travesti woman seeking this space is extremely provocative". She additionally stated that she had been targeted on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

and that she feared escalation to physical violence. She was 36 years old at the time. Salabert received more than 350,000 votes, not winning the election but becoming the first transgender person to run for the Brazilian Senate. In April 2019, Salabert left the Socialism and Liberty Party, criticizing the party for "structural transphobia" and

anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism ( ) is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity on the planet. The term can be used interchangeably with humanocentrism, and some refer to the concept as human supremacy or human exceptionalism. From a ...

. In 2020, Salabert was elected to the city council of Belo Horizonte after campaigning as a member of the Democratic Labour Party. She was the first transgender person elected to the

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

city council, and with 37,000 votes in support, the most-voted-for city council candidate in Minas Gerais history at the time. In December 2020, the school where Salabert taught received an email threatening both her and the school if she remained in her position, and she was fired. In June 2021, Salabert announced that she would campaign for a Senate seat in 2022. She had previously pledged to serve for her entire 4-year term on the Belo Horizonte city council, but stated that she had been advised by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...

to seek a position in the federal government so that she could be protected by the Polícia Federal after having received death threats. In 2022 Salabert and

Erika Hilton Erika Santos Silva, known as Erika Hilton (born 9 December 1992), is a Brazilian politician and activist for black and LGBT rights. Hilton studied teaching and gerontology before entering politics. Affiliated to the Socialism and Liberty Party ...

became the first two openly transgender people elected to the

National Congress of Brazil The National Congress () is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government. Unlike the state legislative assemblies and Câmara Municipal, municipal chambers, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate (Brazil), Federal Sena ...

, with both of them elected to its

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salabert, Duda Living people Minas Gerais politicians Politicians from Belo Horizonte Democratic Labour Party (Brazil) politicians Travestis Transgender women politicians 21st-century Brazilian educators Brazilian environmentalists LGBTQ members of the National Congress of Brazil 21st-century Brazilian LGBTQ people 21st-century Brazilian women politicians 21st-century Brazilian politicians 1981 births Brazilian transgender women Brazilian transgender politicians Brazilian lesbian politicians Veganism activists 20th-century Brazilian women educators 20th-century Brazilian educators 21st-century Brazilian women educators Transgender lesbians Women municipal councillors in Brazil Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Minas Gerais