Meet Christiane Taubira, France’s Minister for Justice who’s fast becoming our latest gay icon for her sterling defence of marriage equality!
The French Minister for Justice has grown in populairty since the first parliamentary debate on gay marriage on January 29. Those in political circles have congratulated her hard work and tough stance, but her speeches have also lead to a wave of Taubiramania amongst followers on the web.
Christiane Taubira has been a hit with gay men, lesbians, and everybody supporting marriage equality in France, but her star has really risen online after her performance during the debates on the new law. A campaign has begun to collect donations to send her a bouquet of roses for Valentine’s Day next week to say thank you for her eloquent speech.
But the Minister is so popular that money has poured in and there’s now more than 9000 euros in the kitty. Organisers have had to come up with a new plan: once the roses are paid for, the rest will go to two charities, SOS Homophobia and Refuge, which takes care of young people excluded from the family because of the sexual orientation or gender identity.
Elsewhere, the gay and lesbian site Yagg is selling #TeamTaubira t-shirts for €15, using the hash-tag that her fans used while following the debates on Twitter. There’s also a Tumblr dedicated to her appearances in Parliament, some of which have been immortalised as GIFs.
The final vote on the law is due to take place on Tuesday, but in the meantime, My Gay Paris would like to share some of the Minister’s proudest moments over the past two weeks.
This first video includes Christiane Taubira opening the debate on the proposed law to allow marriage between people of the same sex. (You can activate the translation subtitles in English with YouTube)
The second shows her exploding with laughter at the end of a long day as she replies to accusations from a fellow politician, Philippe Gosselin, who she accused of trying to break the law down into ‘tiny pieces’. Her rival used a rather provocative gesture to describe the size of the pieces she was talking about—leaving Christine Taubira to return to her seat with tears in her eyes.
