‘Lift this country up’: trans pioneer Erika Hilton seeks Brazil election win

The woman likely to be the first transgender member of parliament says she still feels threat hanging over her

No one does political rags to riches stories quite like Brazil, but even in a nation where the most celebrated president in decades once shined shoes to survive, the story of Erika Hilton takes some beating.

The transgender teenager was kicked out of her house aged 14 and spent several years as a sex worker in rural Brazil before reconnecting with her mother and studying teaching and gerontology at university.