Bianca Barreto recorded a video in August 2024. In it, she commented on a legal case against legislator Nikolas Ferreira and referred to federal congresswoman Duda Salabert using male pronouns.
Salabert is one of the first transgender people elected to Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. Barreto pointed out that she is married to a woman and has a son, and concluded with a phrase that now has her facing prison: “a man is a man, a woman is a woman”.
On July 29, 2026, the 9th Criminal Court of Salvador, in Bahia, sentenced her to two years under an open regime and ordered her to pay about $3,800 in compensation. The judge held that deliberately using Salabert’s biological sex constitutes “social racism” under the Brazilian law that equates transphobia with racism. There were no threats or violence involved: the conviction arose from an opinion expressed on camera. The ruling can still be appealed.