Hollywood delivers a brutal response to Donald Trump’s ‘two sexes’ and DEI crackdown as Emilia Perez trans star Karla Sofia Gascon makes Oscar history as first to earn nomination

The Academy has delivered a brutal response to President Donald Trump’s vow to crack down on gender ideology by nominating a transgender star for an Oscar for the first time in history.

Karla Sofia Gascón, who is transgender, has been nominated for in the Best Actress category for her role in the Spanish-language film Emilia Pérez, which racked up 13 nominations this year. 

Gascón, 52, was also nominated for a Golden Globe, Screen Actors’ Guild award, and BAFTA for her work in the film and shared the best actress award at the Cannes Festival alongside her co-stars Zoë Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.

Her nomination was announced just two days after Trump signed an executive order ruling the US will recognize only two sexes – male and female – which are ‘not changeable’, and demanded officials use the term ‘sex’ rather than ‘gender’.

Trump also signed an order calling for the elimination of government diversity programs, including the ending of all federal offices and jobs related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). 

He also rescinded an order from the administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden that allowed transgender people to serve in the military. 

US President Donald Trump ‘s vow to crack down on gender ideology got off to a shaky start on Thursday as the 97th Academy Award nominations were announced in Los Angeles

Transgender musical drama Emilia Pérez is far from the Hollywood ideal Trump had in mind before his inauguration in Washington DC on Monday, yet it received a total of 13 nominations

Tackling similar themes of gender identity, the Edward Berger directed Conclave was another front-runner during Thursday’s nominations announcement

The newly inaugurated president has vowed to transform ‘troubled’ Hollywood’s ailing film industry over the next four years and promised to bring back its early to mid-twentieth century Golden Age.

But he was sent a very 21st century response as this year’s Oscar nominations were read out on Thursday morning, with films that directly address gender identity running riot across the forthcoming ceremony’s 23 categories. 

Focusing on a Mexican drug lord and his transition from male to female after undergoing gender-affirming surgery, musical drama Emilia Pérez is far from the Hollywood ideal Trump had in mind before his inauguration in Washington DC on Monday. 

The film, applauded by cineastes while attracting criticism from the LGBTQ community, earned an astonishing 13 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director. 

It will compete for Best Film alongside Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked . 

The film has also earned nominations for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Gascón, Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldaña, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Feature Film.

Technical nominations include sound, make-up and hairstyling, film editing, cinematography and original score, as well as two spots on the Best Original Song shortlist for El Mal and Mi Camino.

Tackling similar themes of gender identity, the Edward Berger directed Conclave was another front-runner during Thursday’s nominations announcement. 

The political drama, starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, picked up a total of eight nominations, including Best Film, Best Director,  

Ironically, Trump biopic The Apprentice – dismissed as a ‘disgusting hatchet job’ by the returning President – also features, with leading man Sebastian Stan earning a Best Actor nomination. 

Co-star Jeremy Strong also wins a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as controversial New York City lawyer Roy Cohn, a Trump confidante and mentor before his death to AIDS in 1986.

Acterss Selena Gomez in a scene from Academy Award nominations frontrunner Emilia Pérez

Ralph Fiennes i na scene from Conclave. The film has received a total of eight nominations 

On Wednesday, Trump quickly made good on his pledge to sever diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government by laying off all DEI hires within 24 hours.

The new Trump administration sent a letter to all heads and acting heads of government agencies on Tuesday, informing them all federal employees in DEI roles must be placed on paid leave by 5 pm Wednesday.

In a letter first obtained by CBS News, the agencies were ordered to ‘take prompt actions’ against all departments ‘focusing exclusively on DEI initiatives and programs.’

The letter also demands all public DEI focused webpages be taken offline, and orders employees within the departments to report ‘any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.’

Trump quickly made good on his executive order cutting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the federal government by putting all DEI hires on paid leave 

Any employees that are aware of ‘coded or imprecise language’ intended to keep DEI programs alive but do not report them within 10 days are warned of ‘adverse consequences.’

Trump’s executive order, titled ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions’, directly reverses a DEI executive order enacted by President Biden on his first day in office four years ago.

Tuesday’s order concludes: ‘These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination.’

The executive order slammed the ‘infiltration’ of DEI programs into the federal government, and cited the executive order signed by Biden on the first day of his presidency that aimed to tackle racial inequalities in government.

Another similar executive order signed by Trump on Tuesday also rolled back affirmative action in federal contracting, reversing a longstanding order first signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

Protestors seen outside the Supreme Court in June 2023 after the court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, one of the first major hits to DEI practices under the Biden administration 

Dismantling the federal government’s DEI programs was just one of a wave of executive orders Trump signed in his first hours back in power

Shortly after signing the anti-DEI executive order this week, Trump fired the female leader of the US Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, over concerns about her obsession with DEI policies.

In a memo issued by the White House on Tuesday night, the Trump administration claimed progress made by the passage of civil rights legislation decades ago as having been lost to DEI programs.

‘Today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ the memo read.

Trump’s order argued that DEI programs ‘not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity.’

‘They deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,’ the memo continued.

‘Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.

‘The American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.’