Erika Hilton

About

Erika Hilton is a Brazilian politician and activist for black and LGBTQ+ rights. Hilton gained national and international notice by becoming the first openly transgender person elected in 2022 to the National Congress of Brazil. Online, the politician actively interacts with people on Twitter (X), Instagram and TikTok, with some followers creating ironic memes, reaction images, GIFs and other meme formats.

History

Political Career

Erika Hilton started her political career in 2015^[1], after a dispute with a bus company that refused to print her social name on the ticket. Hilton then started online petitions and shared her story on social media, resolving the issue and gaining notoriety as an LGBTQ+ activist. Erika was invited to join the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) a year after the bus company incident.

São Paulo State Representative

In 2018, Hilton received an invitation to join the Bancada Ativista^[2], which consisted of a group of nine people who launched a collective candidacy for a vacancy in the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (ALESP). The Bancada Ativista, officially represented by Mônica Seixas, was elected with more than 149,000 votes and Hilton, together with Seixas and seven other people assumed a shared mandate.

São Paulo City Council

Two years later, in October 2020, she was elected as councilor of the city of São Paulo with over 50,000 votes, becoming the first trans woman to occupy a seat in the São Paulo City Council.^[3] On October 15th, 2021, Hilton was elected by Times Magazine among the 20 leaders of the next generation. An interview with the politician was posted on the magazine's official YouTube^[4] channel (shown below), amassing more than 3,100 views and 111 likes in two years.

House of Representatives

On October 2nd, 2022, the state of São Paulo, Brazil, elected Erika Hilton as the first transwoman Federal Deputy for Brazil's House of Representatives. She celebrated the victory in a post on X^[5] (shown below), which garnered roughly 98,000 likes and 18,900 retweets in a year.

Online Presence

Online, Hilton has a stable presence on social media, amassing more than 400,000 followers on X^[6], 1.3 million followers on Instagram^[7] and 410,000 followers on TikTok.^[8] The politician is also an inspiration for ironic memes on the internet. For example, on September 19th, 2023, X^[9] user @beyonceaccess posted a video comparing the Hilton with Beyoncé (shown below), which amassed over 1.7 million views and 58,000 likes in a day.

pic.twitter.com/knAkLBuNAR

— Beyoncé Access (@beyonceaccess) September 19, 2023

Related Memes

Erika Hilton Cuidará Disso

Erika Hilton cuidará disso, which translates as "Erika Hilton will take care of it", refers to a popular catchphrase coined in October 2022 by followers of the politician who joked about her being omnipresent in several social discussions, as X^[10] user @eusiklone posted a collection featuring some of Hilton's headline for tabloids. The post (shown below, left) garnered over 39,000 likes and 6,000 retweets in a year. On February 3rd, 2023, X^[11] user @womanwhofell posted a picture of the politician saying "Absolutely every photo of her I see has the 'Congresswoman Erika Hilton will take care of it' energy." The post (shown below, right) garnered roughly 70 likes and 10 retweets in eight months.

Search Interest

External References