Three weeks ago, Lula was in second place. On Sunday night, he was president again, and one of the first people celebrating at his side was Erika Hilton.

Brazil’s October 25 runoff ended with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beating far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. For LGBTQ+ Brazilians, it’s a big relief. It’s not the end of the story.

The comeback, in numbers

The electoral court’s final count gave Lula 64,256,232 votes (51.79%) to Bolsonaro’s 59,826,041 (48.21%), a gap of 4,430,191 votes, ND+ reported, citing the TSE.

That’s a reversal. In the first round on October 4, Bolsonaro led with 47.03% to Lula’s 45.16%, as we reported at the time.

Lula, soon to turn 81, is due to take office for a fourth term on January 5, 2027.

”That’s my president”

Hilton, the travesti congresswoman from São Paulo who was just re-elected with a record 1,596,383 votes, campaigned hard for Lula in the runoff. On election night she posted a selfie-style video: “That’s my president. I never doubted you, President,” Them reported (via The Advocate). In the video shared online, Lula kisses her on the cheek as the crowd cheers, Erin in the Morning reported.

It’s a small gesture. It also lands differently in a country where a sitting trans congresswoman got a death threat on the morning of the first round.

Before the vote, Hilton framed the stakes in regional terms. “The Brazilian election will symbolize Latin America’s democratic resistance,” she told El País, as quoted by Them.

What was on the ballot for LGBTQ+ people

The two candidates offered very different pictures.

  • Lula has long backed marriage equality and trans rights, and created the “Brazil Without Homophobia” programme in 2004, according to Them.
  • Flávio Bolsonaro’s government plan had no specific LGBTQIA+ policies, CUT reported. Its main gender item: women’s sport “da base ao alto rendimento,” from grassroots to elite, would be reserved for athletes born female.

CUT’s national LGBTQIA+ secretary, Walmir Siqueira, flagged a quieter issue: a president’s power to appoint Supreme Court justices. That matters in Brazil, where many LGBTQ+ rights, including marriage, came through the judiciary rather than Congress.

Not over yet

Bolsonaro isn’t conceding. He plans to ask for the runoff to be annulled, citing a chaotic extension of voting, though it’s unclear what legal route he’d use, AP reported.

Here’s what happened: three minutes before polls were due to close, Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin kept them open two more hours, after requests from both candidates. Lula’s side cited bus problems in São Paulo and Salvador; Bolsonaro’s cited heavy rain in the south, AP reported via PBS. Bolsonaro allies point out that Zanin is Lula’s former lawyer.

What doesn’t change on Monday

A win at the ballot box doesn’t make Brazil safer overnight. Grupo Gay da Bahia’s January report found an LGBT person was killed about every 34 hours in Brazil in 2025, with travestis and trans women among the most frequent victims, as CUT noted.

The protections Brazil does have are solid: same-sex marriage since 2013, adoption, and gender marker changes with no surgery requirement. Sunday’s result keeps a long-time supporter of those rights in the presidency. Keeping them, and making them real on the street, is still the work.

The bigger picture

Latin America has been pulling in two directions on LGBTQ+ rights this year. Brazil, its biggest democracy, just chose the side that kissed a trans congresswoman on the cheek on camera. That’s not policy. But it’s a message, and millions of queer Brazilians saw it.

Sources: ND+; AP via ABC News; AP via PBS; Them via The Advocate; Erin in the Morning; CUT. Photo: Henry Rodrigues / Unsplash.