French LGBT+ groups have filed a complaint with the Paris Public Prosecutor against far-right politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen accusing her of “transphobic insult” for comments she made about Karla Sofía Gascón’s Best Actress win at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend.
Gascón made history as the first transgender actress to win the Cannes Best Actress prize alongside co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for their performances in Jacques Audiard gangster musical Emilia Perez.
In response to the win, Maréchal Le Pen posted on X: “So a man has won the Best Actress prize… progress for the left is the erasure of women and mothers.” Spanish actress Gascón, who plays a Mexican drug lord undergoing a sex change, dedicated the prize to “all trans people who suffer every day” and evoked the struggles of trans people in the face of prejudice.
French LGBT+ orgs Mousse, LGBT Families, Adheos, Quazar, LBGTI+ Federation and STOP homophobia said they had filed a complaint against Maréchal-Le Pen on Monday with the Paris Public Prosecutor for “insult due to gender identity”.