Big Brother Brazil’s first trans art woman, Ariadna recalls her participation in the program

First person to participate in Big Brother Brazil, in 2011, Ariadna Arantes made history on Brazilian TV. Today, however, she is wronged within the LGBTQia+ movement and little recognized for her struggle.

Ariadna has been living in Australia just over two years ago and was in Brazil in late 2024 to record the BBB documentary. Did not like the end result. He says he was discredited by a few minutes a few minutes from a long interview where he expected to have a chance to say everything he didn’t say at the time-in images, she appeared to get ready, with halved hair and makeup.

14, when she participated in the BBB, she chose not to declare a trans woman at the beginning of the program and, when she was already confined, told two participants her gender identity. It was eliminated shortly thereafter, being the first to leave the house. After leaving reality, she suffered on her skin with reprisals and public attacks, such as an ironic cover of the popular Jornal Middle Hour and a disrespectful commentary of Marcelo Carvalho, owner of RedeTV!. Ariadna became an emblematic case of transphobia in the country.

“We have had some advancement, but a lot still needs to change. Brazil is for the 16th consecutive year the country that kills the most trans people in the world,” he says in an interview with F5. Despite her commitment to the fight of trans people, she says renegade within the movement. Read below the interview by telephone, straight from Australia.

You hid your gender identity when you entered reality. It was a guidance from Globe? It was my option. A person who goes out of prison and is trying to resocialize not going around telling him that he was in prison. Or someone who had a disease, a cancer, does not go around telling details of his personal life to those who do not know. So my decision was this, I just wanted to tell if and to whom I thought I had to tell. It is my identity. A couple of days before being eliminated, I told whom I trusted inside.

And for the whole of Brazil that watched you. And to the whole of Brazil. At the time, I had no idea this question of struggle, of raising flag. But when I left, I saw that I was representing many people and that’s when I became aware of it. I started to have the size of it and started using my voice to help other trans people. Even so, a lot of people from the community claim that I did nothing.

Why do they say that? The trans community and the LGBTQIA+ community generally exclude me. When I applied for a federal deputy [pelo PSB, em 2022]several people charged me saying that I never did anything, that I am a bankrupt and that I was just taking advantage of the agenda to make money. It was a horrible experience and I could see how loaded the politics in this country.

Today, when we think of fighting, we have to honor the name of those who came before us. Today I understand, for example, why Roberta Close does not want military at that time. Not everyone is ready for military, to endure it all, no.

You suffered attacks when you left BBB, and the carioca newspaper half hour even made a joke about being a trans woman. [A chamada era: ‘Aridna’s Coiffeur: Corto cabelo e pinto. Entrada pela frente e pelos fundos] Yes. And they apologized to me many years later, but the newspaper itself continues to ridicule not only trans women, but everything outside the standards of society.

[Um post nas redes do jornal dizia o seguinte, em 2022: “Pedimos perdão não apenas a Ariadna como a todos e todas agredidos por essa capa de 11 anos atrás. Não tem graça, assim como outras piadas infelizes que, no passado, eram corriqueiras, embora causassem sofrimento. Além de nos envergonhar, não reflete a nossa atual linha editorial”].

Who else attacked you publicly? There was also Marcelo de Carvalho [dono da RedeTV!]who made a live comment about this way: “If Silvio Santos knew what she is, he would not have praised her.” Then Luciana Gimenez [mulher de Marcelo, na época]apologized to me. I have never been back, sometimes if you complain, you are processed. A lot I had to swallow.

Do you feel things changed? The changes today are more visibly in the artistic class. We have Liniker, who won the Grammy. We have Majur performing at Globo. But, unfortunately, the lack of culture, the lack of education and literacy in our country is still the main factor generating inequality in relation to transgender people.

How is your life today in Australia? Why did you choose to live there? I had a companion until recently. Never made this relationship public because people are talking evil. But of course my ex-boyfriend knows that I am an operated woman, that I went through the transition, that I am famous in Brazil. We went together for the Philippines, met his whole family. We were programming to marry as soon as I divorced in Italy. I am still married in Italy, on paper.

The relationship ended, but I still live here. I go to Brazil in two weeks to visit my family, which I don’t have so much attachment, but it’s still my family. I will also reconnect with my religion, I’m from Candomblé. Despite all the problems in Brazil, my land is where I can reenergize myself.

People think that living outside the country is easy, but it is not. Here it is very far, it has to have planning, the passage to Brazil is very expensive. And with the age, we are having less and less friends. A year left to finish my course and then I will see what I do.

What do you study? With what it works? I do English and work with digital platforms and adult content. I also took makeup course. I will travel to Brazil now because I bought two houses in Rio de Janeiro to put in Airbnb. I will hire a person to be responsible.

You have a public life there in Australia? Thank God, no one knows who I am here. I got my student visa because here they embrace the trans cause a lot.

How was your participation in the documentary of BBB? It had everything to be much more beautiful. I had five minutes of participation. I was quiet in mine, I received an invitation, I went to Brazil without them bear with absolutely nothing. I spent $ 25,000 from my pocket and did not receive the minimum consideration.

There was no cache, there was nothing. In addition to money, I spent my time, everyone’s time is sacred. I missed English classes, which can hurt my visa here in Australia. It was a lack of consideration and respect. There was the moment I had to be able to say the things I didn’t say at the time. But they didn’t give me that chance. The recording ended before I was ready. I arrived from the airport and have already been filming on the way to the hotel. I couldn’t rest from a 12 -hour flight.

You feel wronged? People don’t remember me, and when they remember, they make a point of undoing me. I am a makeup artist, I did aesthetics, I like to take care of the skin, I am 40 years old and wonderful skin, beautiful hair. People do not see my potential because I was “Job”. Why do I have to take this load and many other trans this trajectory had? I didn’t have my merit, I didn’t have my recognition. Nowadays, I prefer to be silent.