French LGBT+ teams have filed a grievance with the Paris Public Prosecutor towards far-right politician Marion Maréchal-Le Pen accusing her of “transphobic insult” for feedback she made about Karla Sofía Gascón’s Finest Actress win on the Cannes Movie Competition over the weekend.
Gascón made historical past as the primary transgender actress to win the Cannes Finest Actress prize alongside co-stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for his or her performances in Jacques Audiard gangster musical Emilia Perez.
In response to the win, Maréchal Le Pen posted on X: “So a person has received the Finest Actress prize… progress for the left is the erasure of ladies and moms.”
Spanish actress Gascón, who performs a Mexican drug lord present process a intercourse change, devoted the prize to “all trans individuals who endure daily” and evoked the struggles of trans individuals within the face of prejudice.
French LGBT+ orgs Mousse, LGBT Households, Adheos, Quazar, LBGTI+ Federation and STOP homophobia mentioned they’d filed a grievance towards Maréchal-Le Pen on Monday with the Paris Public Prosecutor for “insult as a consequence of gender identification”.
They famous in a press release that the offence is punishable by one 12 months of imprisonment and a wonderful of 45,000 euros beneath French legislation.
Maréchal Le Pen dismissed the submitting in an interview with French radio station France Inter on Tuesday morning, saying: “I’m not going to let myself be intimidated by authorized threats from LGBT militant- activists… the reality is that being a person or a girl is a organic actuality, whether or not you prefer it or not. The XX and XY chromosomes can’t be undone.”
Maréchal Le Pen is presently on the marketing campaign path for European Parliament elections in June, as head of Reconquête!, the far-right get together based by former failed presidential candidate Eric Zemmour.
The LGBT+ teams famous that Zemmour had beforehand been charged and located responsible of homophobia in September 2023, in relation to feedback he made on the populist information channel CNews in 2019.
“Marion Maréchal Le Pen denies the existence of transgender individuals, in addition to the violence and discrimination these individuals are the sufferer of daily,” mentioned Étienne Deshoulières, the lawyer representing the LGBT group collective.
STOP homophobie Common Secretary Terrence Khatchadourian advised that Maréchal-Le Pen’s feedback – which he certified as “unlawful behaviour” bolstered a local weather of violence for LGBT+ individuals in France.
“Marion Maréchal-Le Pen’s speeches are additionally heard by those that take motion,” he mentioned. “Since 2016, violence towards LGBT+ individuals has exploded by greater than 129%, with the most important enhance affecting transgender individuals. We’re due to this fact extra decided than ever to guard them.”