Brazil seeks to reopen case of Christian student facing 10 years’ prison for ‘transphobia’

Brazil’s federal prosecutors have lodged a special appeal that would reopen the “transphobia” prosecution of Isadora Borges, who studies veterinary medicine and risked as long as 10 years behind bars over two posts on X.

Prosecutors have asked for a review of a March ruling in which a regional federal court dismissed all charges against Borges, according to the legal advocacy group ADF International, which is backing her defense.

If the appeal succeeds, Borges would stand trial again and face the same possible prison term.

Prosecutors want the Superior Tribunal of Justice in Brazil to take up the case. 

“It is terrifying to know that my case could reopen and that I may once again face time in prison, but it is important to me that I always speak the truth,” Borges said. “When we say men cannot become women, we are not spreading hate or targeting anyone; we are stating a biological fact.” She added that she hoped the court would stand by its earlier decision.

The March ruling came from the Federal Regional Court of the Fifth Region. Its three judges voted unanimously to close the case.

The judges found that the posts did not threaten, attack or show hostility toward trans-identifying people and did not call for violence. They ruled that the posts lacked the intent the law requires for a criminal conviction.

That ruling ended the case before a lower court judge. Borges' lawyers had asked the regional court to decide whether the lower court proceedings could go ahead.

During a February hearing, the lower court judge said the posts seemed to express personal opinion, with no apparent discriminatory intent. The judge gave the defense five days to file written conclusions before reaching any decision.

Julio Pohl, ADF International’s legal counsel for Latin America, said the court had been right to find that Borges broke no law.

“By attempting to reopen this case, the state is showing once again that it will go to great lengths to silence speech it doesn’t like,” he said.

Pohl said the March decision set a legal precedent that people cannot face criminal charges for “transphobia” over their opinions. He urged the court to uphold that decision.

When the regional court ruled, Pohl welcomed the outcome and said the case should never have reached that point. He called the prosecution's judicial overreach a “chilling effect” that leaves people afraid to join public debate.

Borges said at the time that the ruling gave her relief and hope that Brazil would protect free speech.

The case began in November 2020, when Borges wrote two posts on X, then known as Twitter, under Jack Dorsey and Vijaya Gadde, who cracked down on Christians and conservatives who didn't kowtow to trans ideology. One of Borges' tweets said trans-identifying males “were obviously born male.” The other said: “A person who identifies as transgender retains their birth DNA. No surgery, synthetic hormone, or clothing change will change this fact.”

The posts drew attention online. Erika Hilton, a trans-identifying politician, then reported Borges to the federal police for “transphobia.”

Hilton, a man, won election earlier this year as president of the Women’s Rights Defense Commission, a committee of Brazil’s Congress, and was recently reelected to Congress.

Borges learned of the charges against her in September 2025. She faced two counts of “transphobia,” each carrying between two and five years in prison.

In February, after The Wall Street Journal reported on her and other Brazilians accused of “transphobia,” Elon Musk shared a post on her case, which went viral on X.

In 2019, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country’s top court, ruled that homophobia and transphobia should be treated as equal to the crime of racism. Congress passed no law to that effect. Since then, a growing number of Brazilians have faced criminal investigation and prosecution for peaceful speech, according to ADF International.