Karla Sofía Gascón, the first openly transgender Academy Award nominee for Best Actress, refused to step down, despite widespread backlash for controversial social media posts.

Karla Sofía Gascón, the star of the French film "Emilia Pérez," has become the first openly transgender actor to be nominated for an Academy Award. Gascón was nominated in the Best Actress category for her role in the Spanish-language musical crime drama. The movie, directed by Jacques Audiard, is available on Netflix.

Karla Sofía Gascón, the Oscar-nominated lead of the movie “Emilia Pérez,” is apologizing for her old social media posts that denigrated Islam and that called George Floyd “a drug addict and a hustler.