Postscript: The heroine of French marriage equality

In what can only be a sign of her increased power as a French political figure, Christiane Taubira, the Cabinet Minister who pushed through marriage equality, is the subject target of some sparkling satire.

Google and you will discover that she is People Magazine's 'Sexiest Politician Alive'.

For the second year in a row, our gorgeous hottie beat out some other equally hot women for the number one spot! And we can't say we disagree!

Twitter Frenzy

Within minutes of Christiane Taubira being announced as this year’s winner, it had become the top trending topic on Twitter:

Sexiest Politician Alive

“She is unquestionably beautiful, she’s been smartly building her career on more than her looks,” wrote one fan.

“#Christiane Taubira being named THE Sexiest Woman Alive makes her boyfriend the luckiest Man Alive?” joked another one.

Not only that but she is the 'Highest-Paid Politician in the World'!

The French politician has an estimated net worth of $185 million. She owes her fortune to smart stock investments, substantial property holdings, lucrative endorsement deals with CoverGirl cosmetics. She also owns several restaurants (the “Fat Taubira Burger” chain) in Paris, a Football Team (the “Cayenne Angels”), has launched her own brand of Vodka (Pure Wondertaubira - France), and is tackling the juniors market with a top-selling perfume (With Love from Christiane) and a fashion line called “Christiane Taubira Seduction”.

The ranking is significant for many Taubira fans, who have been waiting for her triumphant return to the glory days for what seems like a lifetime.

Then there is her adorable dog 'Spinee' (who also appears to be owned by Bill Gates and a former Chelsea player, according to the Guardian) and is 'Recovering from Surgery'.

Throughout the night the French politician posted updates to her numerous followers, about her dog’s delicate condition. “Spinee came out of the anesthetic well … her vital signs are good … your prayers are working,” she Tweeted.

Christiane Taubira continued tweeting about her pup’s prognosis throughout the night and it appears the pooch is on the mend. By Wednesday morning, things continued to look good. “The Spinee Report: Her vital signs are good… pink gums … sleeping peacefully… recovering as hoped,” she said. “Not out of the woods yet. Prayers working :)”

Er, maybe not. It's these guys -- Mediamass:

The project's name is an ironic reversal of portmanteau “mass-media” (media for the masses) in “media-mass” which here means “media en masse” as mass production and therefore mass consumption are the object of our criticism.

The website mediamass.net is the medium of our satire to expose with humour, exaggeration and ridicule the contemporary mass production and mass consumption that we observe

Also it will not only mock the procuders (mainstream media, journalists) as it is common when questioning and criticizing mass media, but also the consumers as one cannot exist without the other. Sensationalism, lack of verification of information, ethics and standards issues are only symptoms of the actual social and economic order. This is particularly obvious when observing the role of social networking sites in spreading rumours.

We won’t change the world, but at least we'll laugh trying.

Ha! Cet homme a la satire, il emporte la pièce.

The heroine of French marriage equality

French lesbians and gays have a new heroine and her name is Christiane Taubira.

The French Minister for Justice is widely regarded as the person most responsible for pushing marriage equality through its fiery passage through the French parliament.

Her work has won her wider accolades too but it wasn't always thus, once she was regarded as a joke, if not a traitor to the left.

Taubira is that rarest of things, a black French politician. She has represented French Guiana, part of South America best known as the location for Europe's space launches and actually a department, part of metropolitan France, since 1993.

From a poor family and from the left she stood as a Presidential candidate for the Radical Party in 2003 to ensuing boos when the Socialist Party candidate came third, behind the National Front's Jean-Marie Le Pen. Her tiny vote was looked at as creating a national French embarrassment. Left wing allies have also called her a bully and authoritarian.

Made a Minister by Francois Hollande she has come back into favour, pushing forward a law last year that categorises the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

But it is her full-throated and eloquent push for marriage equality in the face of not just fierce, sometimes violent, opposition but also as well as tepid support of her own President and party, that has turned her into a modern day Marianne, the symbol of 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité'.

Her January 29 parliamentary speech, delivered without notes, was described as "fiery and lyrical". She laid into the right wing, who have used their opposition to marriage equality, a cynical coalition between the conservatives and the far-right National Front, as a way to bash the unpopular socialist President. She said:

What are gay couples’ marriages going to do to heterosexual couples’ marriages? Nothing. We are talking about the hypocrisy of those who to refuse to recognise homosexual families and the selfishness of those who believe that an institution of the Republic should be reserved for one type of citizen.

Your children and grandchildren already recognise these couples and families, and will do so more and more. You will be very uncomfortable when, out of curiosity, they read the transcripts of these debates.

In that speech she cited Guyanese writer Léon-Gontran Damas:

The act we will accomplish [in passing this law] is ‘as beautiful as a rose that the Eiffel Tower, at last, can see blooming.’ It is ‘as great as our need for fresh air.’ It is ‘as strong as a piercing cry in a long, long night’.

Throughout she has quoted literary heroes. In her final speech yesterday it was Nietzsche: Les vérités tuent, celles que l'on tait deviennent vénéneuses / Truth kills. And if you repress it, it will kill you.

Even her chief opponent, the conservative MP Jean-Frédéric Poisson, told Libération that he had "respect for [Taubira] as a fighter … and for her talent." Many ordinary French people have been won over by her ‘fou rire’ (crazy laugh), heard when she broke into uncontrollable laughter following yet another anti-gay statement in parliament by a right-wing MP during the often interminable and all-night manoeuvrings to delay passage of the law.

She is being compared to two previous symbols of the fight for social justice in France: Simone Veil, who, as minister of health, fought to legalise abortion in 1975, and Robert Badinter, a former justice minister who led the effort to abolish the death penalty in 1981.

In the absence of celebrity endorsement for marriage equality, a French curiosity compared to the US, Taubira has become the star for France's LGBT community.

Yannick Barbe, of news site Yagg, told France24:

You could call it Taubiramania. We were missing a charismatic figure in our fight for equal rights. Now we have one.

Yagg have been selling #TeamTaubira T-shirts.

There are a couple of constitutional hurdles but according to a promise from the Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, socialist mayor of the southern city of Montpellier, Hélène Mandroux, should officiate the first gay marriage "probably in late June or early July."

Watch video and read English translation of Taubira’s Speech to the National Assembly after the passage of the bill opening marriage and adoption to same-sex couples after the jump: