On a Friday night at 11 p.m. in June 2022, 29-year-old Isabella Cêpa got a DM on Instagram from a journalist with Folha de S. Paulo, one of Brazil’s top newspapers. The journalist asked Cêpa for a response to the news that she was charged with five counts of “racism” for “misgendering” a transvestite politician and could face up to 10 to 25 years in prison. The journalist hadn’t expected her to see the message; the bombshell story was published the following day. It was the first time Cêpa had heard about the charges.
