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Judicial Secretary-General Confirms Marriage Equality Will Come To Taiwan By May 2019

Citizens in Taiwan celebrate 2017 ruling by Constitutional Court on marriage equality
(image via Instagram)

As I reported on November 24, Taiwan citizens overwhelmingly voted ‘no’ via public referendum to amend the country’s Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage.

The anti-LGBTQ forces have since informed their supporters that the results of the referendum put a stop to the possibility of marriage equality in Taiwan. In fact, some international news outlets have repeated those claims.

Wrong.

As Taiwan News reports, the country’s Judicial Secretary-General, Lu Tai-lang, addressed the Judiciary and Organic Laws committee of the Legislative Yuan today clarifying that public referendums do not override the Constitutional Court’s 2017 ruling on same-sex marriage.

On May 24, 2017, Taiwan’s highest court ruled that provisions that “do not allow two persons of the same sex to create a permanent union of intimate and exclusive nature for the purpose of living a common life” violate people’s right to equality and freedom of marriage under articles 7 and 22 of constitutional law.

The court gave Taiwan’s lawmakers two years to decide not if but how to implement legal same-sex marriage.

Per the Constitutional Court’s ruling, should Taiwan’s Parliament fail to arrive at a legislative solution by May 24, 2019, same-sex marriage will automatically become the law of the land.

Taiwan’s lawmakers have been locked in a stalemate on what approach to take in legalizing same-sex marriage – should it be realized through changes to the Civil Code, or via brand new legislation?

Conservative lawmakers don’t approve of writing marriage equality into their Civil Code. But LGBTQ advocates say a separate marriage law, similar to the UK’s Civil Partnership Act, would fail to provide true equal rights.

Taiwan, perhaps the most liberal country in the Asian region in terms of LGBTQ visibility, recently hosted over 130,000 participants in their Pride Parade.

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Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty To Lying To Congress About Trump/Russia Deal

Former Donald Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty this morning in a New York court to lying to Congress regarding a Moscow real estate project that Trump and his company pursued during the months he was running for president.

Trump repeatedly said during the 2016 campaign he had no deals, interests or financial ties in or to Russia.

From The Washington Post:

In a nine-page filing, prosecutors laid out a litany of lies that Cohen admitted he told to congressional lawmakers about the Moscow project — an attempt, Cohen said, to minimize links between the proposed development and Trump as his presidential bid was taking off.

Cohen falsely said efforts to build a Trump-branded tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, when in fact discussions continued through that year, the filing said. Among the people Cohen briefed on the status of the project was Trump himself, on more than three occasions, according to the document.

Trump has repeatedly said that he had no business dealings in Russia, tweeting in July 2016, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” and telling reporters in January 2017 that he had no deals there because he had “stayed away.”

Tom Winter of NBC News was in the court room and reports on what Cohen testified to:

Trump immediately told reporters that he could have pursued the deal in Russia and there would have been nothing wrong with that, but he didn’t.

He went on to say the man who was his personal lawyer for years and years is “a weak person.”

Trump has suddenly decided to cancel meetings with Russian President Putin at the G20 summit. Coincidence? Or just avoiding bad optics?

One more thing – don’t forget this email from Felix Sater to Michael Cohen in 2015 saying, “Buddy, our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it.”

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News Round-Up: November 28, 2018

• Cher showed up at her own Broadway show – The Cher Show – last night, and the crowd lost its mind. • Openly gay super-producer Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Pose, GLEE, Assassination of Gianna Versace) is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. • This far-right pundit says women become lesbians because they’re too ugly to love. By that logic, he must be a screaming queen. • Judy Sheindlin, more famous as TV’s Judge Judy, made an astounding $147 million last year before taxes making Sheindlin the world’s highest-paid television host. The lion share of that was for selling the rights to her 5,200-episode library, as well as future episodes of the show, to CBS for an estimated $100 million. • A man was brutally beaten, robbed & humiliated during an Instagram hook-up. • A gay Virginia firefighter got married in 2014 and suddenly became the ridicule of not only fellow firefighters but his superiors. He was eventually filed for early retirement after being told he would be fired if he didn’t resign. He’s now suing for lost wages and benefits. • Check out Upsahl’s new music video, “The Other Team,” about unrequited feelings and crushing on people that don’t like you back. The lyrics focus on those folks who are swinging for somebody else’s ‘other team,’ so there’s lots of missed connections between characters throughout the video. Definitely has some ‘Breakfast Club’ vibes, so it really takes you back to high school and the whirlwind of emotions that go with it

 

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‘Queer Eye’ Guys Share The Impact The Show Has Had On Conservative America

The cast of Netflix’s ‘Queer Eye’

The men of Netflix’s Queer Eye joined the ladies of The View to chat on the impact the Emmy Award-winning show has had on the country, especially in rural America where the show has been filming some episodes.

Design guy Bobby Berk shared about a message he received privately on social media from a preacher who feels differently about gays having watched Berk share his story of growing up in the church and feeling unwanted there.

“My whole life I was taught in church that homosexuality is a sin, that they’re pedophiles, that they’re heathens, that they’re definitely going to hell and that they choose to be that way and in turn my church I have preached the exact same way.

And hearing you talk about how every single day of your life you cried and you begged and you pleaded and you prayed for God not to make you gay but you still are showed me that it isn’t a choice and that you were born that way and I’ll never preach that way in my church again.’”

“To hear that now little kids in that church aren’t going to grow up and be taught to hate who they are, that’s worth everything.”

Joy Behar brought up the MAGA hat that culture guy, Karamo Brown, received from a Trump supporter.

“I threw the hat away,” admitted Karamo. “But ironically, that guy and I, we are best friends.”

“For five gay guys to go into rural America and feel as if we’re making a change, it feels really good,” he continued. “We can’t expect people to grow until we show them who we are.”

Newly-engaged Karamo also admits to be something of a ‘Bride-zilla” having just rented a ferris wheel for the upcoming nuptials.

Tan France, who now lives in Salt Lake City with his husband, shared that he knew most of America had never seen ‘this’ – a gay Muslim – but the reaction he’s received has been “the most beautifully warm welcome” he ever could have imagined.

An interesting exchange happened when Behar asked food expert Antoni Porowski his thoughts on the same-sex kiss that ended a number from Broadway’s The Prom on last week on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Porowski offered a tentative, “I think it’s a reminder that the rest of the country is not New York and we need to remember that.”

But grooming guy Jonathan Van Ness seems to be a bit fatigued with waiting for folks to feel the gay love.

“Why?” inquired Van Ness. “I’m so done making the people feel comfortable.”

“I’ve had to endure a lot of heterosexual kissing in my lifetime,” Van Ness added.

Watch the segment below.

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Gay Trump Supporter Shows Their Transphobia (Then Deletes It)

(via Instagram)

On Monday, I reported on the recent New York Times profile of former ‘liberal” gay couple, Bryan Eure and husband Bill White, who after years of supporting Democratic politicians, jumped ship the night of the 2016 presidential election and suddenly became Trump supporters.

And when I write “the night of,” Bill White literally left Hillary Clinton’s event in Manhattan as the returns came in and drove across town to Donald Trump’s party immediately shifting his loyalty in the blink of an eye.

Now, the duo are throwing $5 million fundraisers for the Trumpster and boast about having Don Trump Jr. on speed dial.

It turns out the couple has even more in common with Donald Trump than we knew. Eure, a commercial insurance broker, has just as much animus towards the transgender community as his idol does.

Upon publication of the NY Times piece, activist/drag queen Marti Gould Cummings took to Instagram to comment on Eure’s gushing obsession for the current White House resident.

“This is shameful and disgusting,” Cummings wrote. “Chelsea didn’t wave at you, Hillary didn’t take a photo so you jump ship … The incredible privilege you have shows in this article. You could be using your wealth to help transgender people [whom] Trump is actively discriminating against or you could use it to help families seeking asylum. You are both gross.”

To which social climber Eure replied, “Transgender is gross.”

Eure deleted the exchange but Cummings screen-capped the comment before it disappeared into the ether and posted it to his account with the caption, “Hey @euregram you can delete your reply but just to remind people that you posted it — here ya go.”

The internet IS forever, don’t you know?

But Eure wasn’t done revealing himself. It seems he really, really likes attention.

The profile in the Times apparently didn’t fawn over him enough, so he wrote his own version of his Trump love affair for the far-right leaning website, The Daily Caller.

In his self-penned essay he takes umbrage over the fact that people were offended a gay man’s defense of Donald Trump being dismissed with his statement, “I don’t believe in identity politics.”

He also shares his wealthy, white privilege by announcing, “I’m 39-years-old. I grew up in the new world — where we were all in school together and there was no true discrimination.”

“No true discrimination?” People of color, LGBTQ folks or women don’t experience discrimination?

I think Mr. Eure has spent a lot more time in the Hamptons than he has “the new world.”

Folks in the Twitterverse weren’t too taken with the self-proclaimed ‘power couple.’

Longtime LGBTQ activist/author Michelangelo Signorile tweeted:

And from Wayne Besen, founder of ’Truth Wins Out:’

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Donald Trump’s Disapproval Rating Jumps To 60%

Click image to enlarge

Donald Trump’s approval rating drops again, this time to a low 38% according to the Gallup tracking poll.

Worse, though, is his disapproval rating that jumped up to his high of 60%.

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president. Weekly results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults, with a margin of error is ±3 percentage points.

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Cindy “I’d Attend A Lynching” Hyde-Smith Wins Mississippi Run-Off For US Senate

Mississippi has voted 54/46 to send racist “I’d attend a lynching” Cindy Hyde-Smith to the US Senate.

Hyde-Smith’s victory means there will be a 53-47 majority for Senate Republicans in the next Congress beginning in January.

It’s worth noting that Donald Trump won Mississippi in 2016 by 18 points. Hyde-Smith won by 8 points.

See what’s happening there…?

It may not surprise you to learn Mississippi is ranked #50 in the US regarding education.

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Ivanka Trump Sees “No Equivalency” To Her Private Email Use Compared To Hillary Clinton

Ivanka Trump tells ABC News today the recent revelation that she’s used a private email account while doing government business has no “equivalency” in comparison to Hillary Clinton, who her father bashed over and over again for during the 2016 presidential campaign.

She says her personal email use was focused on “mainly scheduling and logistics and managing the fact that I have a home life and a work life.”

From Good Morning America:

Speaking with ABC News’ Deborah Roberts in Wilder, Idaho, where she’s promoting STEM initiatives alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook, Ivanka Trump maintained that all of the emails on her private account were properly archived and contained no classified information. She is adamant they bear no resemblance to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, which her father eagerly and frequently condemned as part of his campaign for president.

“All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions. There is no attempt to hide,” she said, adding, “There’s no equivalency to what my father’s spoken about.”

In truth, Ivanka is correct to a degree – there is no equivalency.

Hillary left the State Department in 2013 and did not violate the actual Federal Records Act law that was amended in 2014 like Ivanka did.

Ivanka also pushed back at the idea her father had authorized “lethal force” on migrants. And then GMA played the video tape of him using that exact phrase.

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Gus Kenworthy Helps College Student Be ‘Fearless’ In Coming Out

Gus Kenworthy, Ashley Graham help John to come out to his parents

Ellen DeGeneres has launched a new web series titled, Fearless, hosted by entrepreneur and body positive activist Ashley Graham.

The digital series, hosted on EllenTube, focuses on helping people struggling with their own confidence issues to rally the courage to rise above, take the next step and become unapologetically fearless.

In this episode, Ashley helps 20-year-old college student John come out to his parents.

John admits he’s come out to his friends but the idea of telling his parents he’s gay has him “freaked out.”

He says that he first became aware of being attracted to boys in 7th grade but it wasn’t until after he graduated high school and a friend asked him point blank if he was gay.

Gus Kenworthy on coming out

Ashley brings in out Olympian Gus Kenworthy to help John get up the nerve to make the call to his parents.

Kenworthy famously came out on the cover of ESPN Magazine back in 2015. Since then, he’s become one of the leading voices for LGBTQ representation and authenticity.

Gus shares that coming out for him, while scary and nerve-wracking (he didn’t sleep the night before), was ultimately a very positive experience.

Ashley asks if Gus’s friends wanted to talk about the gay thing after he came out and Gus laughs saying, “There’s a thing that straight people are going to do to you; they’re like, ‘Oh my god, you’re gay? You should meet my friend Jason, he’s gay.’”

And with that, they send John off to make THE call to his parents.

The reaction? Watch the video below to find out. Plus, there’s a surprise twist!

At the end of the short video, Gus has these words for those facing their own coming out:

“For anyone who’s watching that’s in the closet and struggling with their identity, their sexuality, I just want to let you know that you are valid, you are seen, you are heard, you are loved. And it can be really scary thinking about taking that step and revealing who you are and being so transparent with the world. But you’re going to be so much happier for it, and you living your life authentically and unapologetically is going to make it that much easier for other people to do the same.”

Follow the digital series Fearless here with new episodes every Wednesday.

Past episodes include Laverne Cox meeting a transgender man who’s never met another trans person before, and Ashley giving a teacher a lesson on body confidence.

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Special Counsel Has Emails Between Trump Allies Discussing WikiLeaks Emails Before They Happened

Special Counsel Robert Mueller apparently has email correspondence between Trump ally Roger Stone and InfoWars' Jerome Corsi discussing the release of DNC emails by WikiLeaks before it happened.
Donald Trump

Special Counsel Robert Mueller apparently has email correspondence between Trump ally Roger Stone and InfoWars’ Jerome Corsi discussing the release of DNC emails by WikiLeaks before it happened.

From NBC News:

Two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi sent an email to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone anticipating the document dump, according to draft court papers obtained by NBC News.

“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote on Aug. 2, 2016, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the draft court papers. “One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.”

The email was revealed in a draft court document, known as a statement of the offense, sent to Corsi by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. Mueller also sent Corsi a draft plea agreement stipulating that the special counsel would not oppose Corsi requesting a sentence of probation if he agreed to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators.

As NBC News reported on Monday, Corsi said he has rejected the deal. He has described Mueller’s team as “thugs” and insisted that he did not “intentionally lie” about his communications related to WikiLeaks.

NBC News goes on to note that Corsi SCRUBBED his computer between Jan. 13, 2017, and March 1, 2017, deleting all email correspondence that predated Oct. 11, 2016, including the messages from Stone about WikiLeaks.

Corsi denies all of this saying it was all an educated guess.

“Why did I think they were coming out in October? Because I said to myself if I had these emails I’d use them as the October surprise,” Corsi told NBC News on Tuesday. “And why did I think they would come out serially, drip by drip? Because Assange is very strategic. He understands the news cycle.”

Earlier today, The Guardian reported that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London right before he took over the Trump campaign.