Harun Nasrullah
Karla Sofia Gascon, the first openly transgender actor to receive an Academy Award nomination, is facing intense criticism after a series of resurfaced tweets containing racist and offensive remarks ignited outrage online.
The Spanish actor, who built a successful career in Mexican telenovelas after relocating in 2009, was nominated last month for an Oscar for her role in the 2024 Spanish-language musical crime thriller Emilia Perez.
On January 30, Canadian journalist Sarah Hagi unearthed a collection of Gascon’s past posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, dating from 2019 to 2021. The tweets, written in Spanish, targeted various minority communities, with several posts specifically attacking Islam.
In the resurfaced posts, Gascon referred to Muslims as “retarded followers of Allah” and “madmen,” claiming their religion was incompatible with Western society and describing it as a “hotbed infection for humanity.”
In another appalling post, Gascon mocked a niqab-wearing Muslim woman, sneering that Muslim “women are respected, and when they are respected a lot, they leave a little square on their face so that their eyes and mouth can be seen, but only if they behave well. What a deep and disgusting humanity.”
The hate didn’t stop there. Gascon dismissed George Floyd—the unarmed Black man whose killing by police in 2020 ignited global protests—as a “drug addict and a hustler,” claiming that “very few people ever cared about” him. She also derided the diversity at the Academy Awards, sneering at the 93rd Oscars as an “Afro-Korean festival,” a “Black Lives Matter demonstration,” or a celebration of International Women’s Day.
Social media erupted in fury. “Reading through them and my eyes are bugging out. She’s clearly a hardcore racist and Islamophobe. Yes, the irony, to put it mildly,” one user fumed. Another noted, “Let me remind you that because you are an oppressed and villainized group, does not mean you will be an ally of other such groups, let alone have any sympathy.”
The revelations also raised questions about the Academy’s response: “Curious about how the Emilia Perez cast and Academy voters will respond to Karla Sofia Gascon’s Islamophobic and vile tweets. The fact that these tweets span years, and there are so many of them, proves that these are her consistent and blatant beliefs.”
Hagi, the journalist behind the exposure, was stunned by the inflammatory content’s public availability. “It’s so insane that Karla Sofia Gascon still has these tweets up. Straight up have never seen tweets this racist from someone actively campaigning to win an Academy Award…” she wrote, sharing screenshots of Gascon’s remarks. “This is all from the star of a movie that is campaigning on its progressive values, you really gotta laugh. Stuff like this doesn’t get flagged because you can say whatever you want about Muslims, it’s never considered racist.”
In the fallout, Gascon deactivated her X account. The Muslim Public Affairs Council didn’t hold back in their condemnation, stating that, deleted or not, her words remain “hurtful, offensive, and shocking.” They pointedly noted, “Muslims are part of every community, including the transgender community. ‘European values’? Does she mean the ones that led to the Holocaust? She needs to immerse herself in Islamic history. When Europe was in the dark age, Muslims were busy discovering math, science, and medical equipment. Learn, woman.”
Amidst the backlash, Gascon issued an apology, admitting she has “many things to learn” and recognizing her “manner of expression is [her] main flaw.” She expressed regret for causing pain but stood firm on not withdrawing from her Oscar nomination, asserting that her past statements should not eclipse her acting achievements.
(Photo credit: Karsia/Wiki Commons)
