Death threats assail Brazil's trailblazing trans candidates as they campaign

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Benny Briolly beamed as she strode through the concrete favela alleyway in a snow-white dress, volunteers proudly waving campaign flags emblazoned with her face.

The city councilwoman and nearly 1,000 other transgender politicians are running Sunday in every one of Brazil's 26 states, according to the nation’s electoral court, which is tracking them for the first time. The number of candidacies has tripled since the last local elections four years ago, when trans rights group Antra mapped them.

As trans people have set their sights on political office, many have been met with intimidation efforts bent on turning them away, including a candidate in Brazil’s biggest city who survived an assassination attempt last week.

More trans people — 100 — were murdered in Brazil last year than in any other country, according to Transgender Europe, a network of global non-profits that tracks the data. Those precise statistics are almost certainly driven by a combination of poor reporting elsewhere and Brazil's active network of advocates, but experts agree that transphobia is ubiquitous.

On International Women’s Day last year, Nikolas Ferreira — the federal lawmaker who received more votes than any other — donned a blond wig in Congress’ lower house. He said it allowed him to speak as a woman and denounce trans people.

In 2022 Rio state lawmaker Rodrigo Amorim called Briolly “an aberration of nature” in the state's legislature.

Such tactics rally voters by portraying trans people as a menace to be courageously fought, according to Ligia Fabris, a gender and law specialist and a visiting professor at Yale University.

Both Amorim and Ferreira were staunch allies of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Transgender politician Leonora Áquilla, a candidate for city council in Sao Paulo this year, said that Bolsonaro had inflamed transphobia and that she has had to stare down people shouting death threats to her face.

Bolsonaro lost his re-election bid to leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2022 but transphobia has far from retreated.

Since entering the public eye, Briolly has received over 700 death threats. Some have included the address of her home in Rio de Janeiro’s metro area and warnings that she would suffer the same fate as city councilwoman Marielle Franco, a champion for LGBTQ+ rights who was gunned down in 2018. That threat prompted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to demand that Brazil provide Briolly protection.

She won’t be scared off her reelection bid even though some may want her dead.

“When we get into politics, our bodies become threats and we become constant targets,” Briolly told the Associated Press, with the city of Niteroi — across the bay from Rio — stretching out behind her. “Our bodies are revolutionary, are daring ... they are bodies that emanate hope to all those who were left behind.”

Áquilla narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on Sept. 26. She was in northern Sao Paulo on her way to look into reports of transphobia when a motorcycle deliberately slammed into her car. When she got out, the driver revved his engine, and instinctively she ducked. The bullet from his gun missed her, and he fired more shots as she lay there, pretending to be dead. He escaped and Áquilla has ceased in-person campaigning.

“There have been so many threats they became banal; we never thought it would happen. I’m completely in shock. I’m taking a sedative, because I can’t control my nervousness, my anxiety,” she said in a video call. “Right on the eve of the election, the moment when I most need to be on the streets, they’re trying to silence me.”

Duda Salabert, who is running for mayor in Brazil’s sixth biggest city, Belo Horizonte, made history in 2022 when elected alongside another trans woman to Brazil’s lower house of Congress. Their victories were widely regarded as a breakthrough for trans representation, but Salabert said that during that campaign she received death threats daily.

“I had to walk with an armed escort ... I had to vote with a bulletproof vest, according to police instructions, and I couldn’t go into large crowds because I risked being attacked,” she said.

This year, Salabert said she is seeking to become the first trans mayor of a major city in Latin America.

“It’s a joy, because we’re making history, but it’s sad because our candidacy highlights the entire history of exclusion, violence and alienation of the transvestite and transgender community from electoral processes in Brazil and Latin America,” she said in a video call.

Indianarae Siqueira, a trangender sex worker and longtime activist running to be a city councilor in Rio, says that increasingly seeing trans people occupy places of power has had a snowball effect.

“Those who managed to win and are there — I think this is a reference and gives incentive so that people want to enter (politics),” she said during an interview on the steps leading to Rio’s municipal assembly.

Back in the Niteroi favela, Briolly agreed that there’s an element of joy to playing an active role in politics, even amid the threats.

“For me, it’s pride — a latent, powerful pride — that grows more and more in my heart and in the heart of each and every person who believes that my body and my voice are just a reflection, an empowerment of the collective struggle,” she said. “When a Black trans woman moves, she moves the whole of society."

Indianarae Siqueira, a transgender woman running for city council, poses for a selfie with a supporter at an LGBTQIA+ pride parade in the Mare neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

Benny Briolly, center, a transgender woman running for city council, canvases with supporters and members of her campaign team in Morro do Estado, in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

A campaign member of Benny Briolly, a transgender woman running for city council, waves a banner during a campaign event in Morro do Estado, in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

Indianarae Siqueira, a transgender woman running for city council, attends a rally led by state employees in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

Benny Briolly, a transgender woman running for city council, poses for a photo during a campaign event with supporters and members of her campaign team in Morro do Estado, in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)

The large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off. The Morris County Republican was among several state and local lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the spate of sightings that range from the New York City area through New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia.

The devices do not appear to be being flown by hobbyists, Fantasia wrote.

Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month and have raised growing concern among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. military research and manufacturing facility; and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.

Most, but not all, of the drones spotted in New Jersey were larger than those typically used by hobbyists.

The number of sightings has increased in recent days, though officials say many of the objects seen may have been planes rather than drones. It’s also possible that a single drone has been reported more than once.

Gov. Phil Murphy and law enforcement officials have stressed that the drones don’t appear to threaten public safety. The FBI has been investigating and has asked residents to share any videos, photos or other information they may have.

Two Republican Jersey Shore-area congressmen, U.S. Reps. Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew, have called on the military to shoot down the drones.

Smith said a Coast Guard commanding officer briefed him on an incident over the weekend in which a dozen drones followed a motorized Coast Guard lifeboat “in close pursuit” near Barnegat Light and Island Beach State Park in Ocean County.

Coast Guard Lt. Luke Pinneo told The Associated Press Wednesday “that multiple low-altitude aircraft were observed in vicinity of one of our vessels near Island Beach State Park.”

The aircraft weren't perceived as an immediate threat and didn't disrupt operations, Pinneo said. The Coast Guard is assisting the FBI and state agencies in investigating.

In a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Smith called for military help dealing with the drones, noting that Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst has the capability "to identify and take down unauthorized unmanned aerial systems.”

However, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Wednesday that “our initial assessment here is that these are not drones or activities coming from a foreign entity or adversary.”

Many municipal lawmakers have called for more restrictions on who is entitled to fly the unmanned devices. At least one state lawmaker proposed a temporary ban on drone flights in the state.

“This is something we’re taking deadly seriously. I don’t blame people for being frustrated," Murphy said earlier this week. A spokesman for the Democratic governor said he did not attend Wednesday's meeting.

Republican Assemblyman Erik Peterson, whose district includes parts of the state where the drones have been reported, said he also attended Wednesday's meeting at a state police facility in West Trenton. The session lasted for about 90 minutes.

Peterson said DHS officials were generous with their time, but appeared dismissive of some concerns, saying not all the sightings reported have been confirmed to involve drones.

So who or what is behind the flying objects? Where are they coming from? What are they doing? “My understanding is they have no clue,” Peterson said.

A message seeking comment was left with the Department of Homeland Security.

Most of the drones have been spotted along coastal areas and some were recently reported flying over a large reservoir in Clinton. Sightings also have been reported in neighboring states.

James Edwards, of Succasunna, New Jersey, said he has seen a few drones flying over his neighborhood since last month.

“It raises concern mainly because there's so much that's unknown,” Edwards said Wednesday. “There are lots of people spouting off about various conspiracies that they believe are in play here, but that only adds fuel to the fire unnecessarily. We need to wait and see what is really happening here, not let fear of the unknown overtake us."

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AP reporters Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; and Wayne Parry in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

In this image taken from video, what appears to be drones flying over Randolph, N.J., Dec. 4, 2024. (MartyA45_ /TMX via AP)

Multiple drones are seen over Bernardsville, N.J., Dec. 5, 2024 (Brian Glenn/TMX via AP)

FILE - In this April 29, 2018, file photo, a drone operator helps to retrieve a drone after photographing over Hart Island in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)