Carla Antonelli


Carla Delgado Gómez is a Canarian-Spanish actress who uses the stage name Carla Antonelli. She is also a noted LGBT rights activist who maintains a large support website for transgender people, and a politician serving in the Madrid Assembly, the first trans person to serve in a legislature in Spain.

Career

Antonelli attended the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
In 1980 she recorded the first documentary on transsexuality for TVE2. It was not aired until September 1981, after the failed 23-F coup by Antonio Tejero.
Antonelli is best known for her role as Gloria in the television series El síndrome de Ulises.

Political activism

In 1997 Antonelli joined in the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, as Area Coordinator for the Federal Transsexual/GLBT Group.
In 2004 the PSOE won the elections and the Congress approved gay marriage, but trans rights were not granted at that time. In 2006, Antonelli threatened a hunger strike unless the PSOE majority adopted the Gender Identity Law. The law was adopted in 2007, and she was the first transsexual person in the Community of Madrid to obtain the amended sex designation on her legal documents.
Antonelli has spoken out against attempts to prohibit sex work in Spain, noting that it would disproportionately affect trans women, who often have difficulty finding other work.
She has received several awards for her work. The Transsexual Collective of Madrid honored her in 2003 for her trailblazing efforts. She was honored by transgender groups in Catalonia and Andalusia in 2008 for her work on the Gender Identity Act. She won the 2008 Premios Látigos y Plumas from the Federación Estatal de Gays, Lesbianas y Transexuales de España and the 2009 Baeza Award for visibility.
On May 22, 2011, Antonelli was elected on the list of the Spanish Socialist Party to the Assembly of the Community of Madrid, becoming the first trans person elected to a legislature in Spain and was re-elected in the 2015 and 2019 regional elections.

Film and television work