Spain’s first trans senator Carla Antonelli electrifies parliament with must-see speech on trans rights: ‘Leave us alone!’
"Do you not feel any shame at all for trying to remove, to erase, to cut out of this society a historically persecuted group of people?"
Carla Antonelli, a Spanish politician and LGBTQ activist, has delivered a rabble-rousing speech in defence of trans rights in her country’s parliament.
The moment was shared on Instagram on Friday (21 February 2025) in a collaboration post between Carla and Más Madrid, the left-wing political party she has been a member of since 2023.
“Everyone has an opinion about us” – Carla Antonelli
Addressing the room, the former actress said: “Trans people – we are everyone’s topic of conversation. Everyone has to have an opinion about us. If we are trans, what we are, what we are not.”
The lawmaker continued: “Do we get surgery or not? Do we mutilate ourselves or not? Just leave us alone, for god’s sake!”
Carla went on to address Vox, a Spanish nationalist party: “Members of Vox, today you came here to derogate my colleague Jimena [González, another Spanish politician who is trans], to derogate me. Honestly, don’t you feel ashamed?
“Do you not feel any shame at all for trying to remove, to erase, to cut out of this society a historically persecuted group of people?”
The 65-year-old then added: “People who are finally starting to life our heads, trying to find our place in this world? You are making our lives absolutely unbearable.”
Carla made history as the first publicly transgender person elected to the Cortes Generales. She is also the first publicly trans person to serve in a regional legislature in Spain.