Pedro Almodóvar defends Hunter Schafer from Trump’s ‘lunatic’ treatment of trans people

Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door) has defended trans actor Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) against President Donald Trump’s ‘authoritarian, lunatic’ treatment of trans people in the United States.Almodóvar accepted the Chaplin Award from Film at the Lincoln Center in New York (30 April), and used the last part of his acceptance speech to target the incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his administration’s treatment of trans people.“I admit that there have been moments when I have doubted about coming to accept [the Chaplin award],” the director, who lives in Spain, said.

“I have doubted if it was appropriate to come to a country ruled by a narcissistic, authoritarian lunatic who doesn’t respect human rights and who it seems nothing can stop on his race to change the fragile world balance.”Almodóvar, who was speaking in English (his second language), then turned his speech to address Hunger Games star Hunter Schafer’s recent experience with her passport.In February this year, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Schafer shared that her new US passport listed her gender marker as “M” for male, rather than female.



“I was like, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ and today, I saw it on my new passport. I was shocked because I didn’t think it was actually going to happen. I wanna acknowledge my privilege as a celebrity trans woman who is white and thin and can adhere to contemporary beauty standards — and it still happened,” Schafer explained in a TikTok at the time.

In his speech Almodóvar said, “Hunter Schafer, the wonderful co-protagonist with Zendaya of Euphoria, is a woman even though she was assigned with the [marker] M for male while renewing her passport.“That cruel whim by Trump’s bureaucrats that there are only two genders does not change the nature of the human being and its sexual diversity.”The director also dedicated his win to Schafer, as well as immigrants deported by the Trump administration.

Trump has continued to target trans people across the United States, most recently telling trans swimmer Lia Thomas’ university to erase her records or have their funding cut.On 5 February, Trump issued executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, which stipulated how Title IX – a landmark piece of civil rights legislation – should be used to exclude trans women. The directive said the funding would be suspended for institutions that allowed transgender girls or women to compete on teams that align with their gender.

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