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Mexico’s Supreme Court Just Quietly Legalized Same-Sex Marriage

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The Mexican Supreme Court has just legalized same-sex marriage, but the country doesn’t have equal marriage rights just yet.

As the United States eagerly waits for the Supreme Court to give a final ruling on whether or not marriage equality will be recognized nationwide, the Mexican Supreme court effectively made same-sex marriage legal in their country. The ruling is technically considered a “jurisprudential thesis” and does not invalidate any state laws that are currently on the books. So what does that mean, and how can same-sex couples get married if the state they reside in has laws prohibiting marriage between two people of the same sex?

According to BuzzFeed, same-sex couples might still run into a few snags because local registrars are not required to follow this ruling; however gay couples denied marriage rights in their states are able to seek injunctions from district judges since the jurisprudential thesis now requires the judges to grant them. In a roundabout way, the Mexican Supreme Court effectively made same-sex marriage legal across the country.

“As the purpose of matrimony is not procreation, there is no justified reason that the matrimonial union be heterosexual, nor that it be stated as between only a man and only a woman,” the ruling said. “Such a statement turns out to be discriminatory in its mere expression.”

Estefanía Vela Barba, an associate law professor at CIDE, a university in Mexico City, clarified the ruling in a quote to the New York Times. “Without a doubt, gay marriage is legal everywhere,” she said. “If a same-sex couple comes along and the code says marriage is between a man and a woman and for the purposes of reproduction, the court says, ‘Ignore it, marriage is for two people.’”

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just ignoring the discriminatory code or the local registrar. Even though judges are now required to provide marriage licenses, if a registrar denies a same-sex couple, it is up to that couple to appeal the courts. According to the Times, that process can cost $1,000 or more and the legal process can take months. While this means marriage is not 100 percent equal, the recent ruling in Mexico is definitely a step in the right direction.

The global trend is leaning towards more and more countries recognizing LGBT relationships. Last month, Ireland became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by national referendum. Just last week, the German Bundesrat passed a resolution in support of changing the German Civil Code to include marriage equality, and Italy’s Lower House of Parliament passed a motion on gay civil unions. Now, the United States eagerly awaits the Supreme Court’s decision on whether or not marriage equality should be recognized across the country. The ruling is expected to be announced later this month. 

 

Image by ismael villafranco via Flickr and a CC license

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INSURRECTION

Watch: Kevin McCarthy Squirms as Chris Wallace Grills Him on Trump’s Seditious Behavior on Jan. 6

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Sunday disputed allegations that President Donald Trump reached out to him to coordinate an alibi after the Capitol was attacked by Trump-supporting insurrectionists on Jan. 6.

Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted McCarthy about a telephone call he had with Trump soon after the attack on the Capitol was underway.

“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump reportedly told McCarthy at the time, according to Rep. Herrera Beutler (R-WA).

“Is she right?” Wallace asked. “Is that what President Trump said to you?”

“What he ended the call, was saying — telling me he’ll put something out to make sure to stop this [riot],” McCarthy said. “And that’s what he did. He put a video out later.”

“Quite a lot later,” Wallace pointed out. “And it was a pretty weak video. But I’m asking you specifically. Did he say to you, some people are more concerned about the election than you are?”

“No, listen,” McCarthy replied. “My conversations with the president are my conversations with the president. I engaged in the idea of making sure we could stop what was going on inside the Capitol at that moment in time. The president said he would help.”

Wallace pressed: “Has the president ever reached out to you since that report came out to discuss what you and he talked about in the January 6th phone call? And did you say to him, ‘I can’t because we’re under oath.'”

“No,” McCarthy stated.

“That never happened?” Wallace asked.

“That’s never happened,” McCarthy insisted. “Never even close.”

“And if it did happen, you would agree that would be witness tampering?” Wallace observed.

“Yeah, but it never happened!” McCarthy said. “Never even came close, never had any conversation like that.”

Watch the video below from Fox News.

 

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NOPE NOPE NOPE

Caitlyn Jenner’s Campaign Announcement ‘Landed With a Thud’: MSNBC

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As Republicans push ahead with their long-shot bid to unseat Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election, former Olympian and transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner filed the paperwork to challenge him as a Republican — but on MSNBC, reporter Scott Cohn noted that her controversial candidacy is already flailing in the water.

“What are folks saying about her candidacy?” asked anchor Alex Witt.

“Well, Alex, we know who’s not saying anything so far. Caitlyn Jenner’s daughters, Kylie and Kendall, have not had any comment. Neither has ex-wife Kris Jenner or any of the Kardashians,” said Cohn. “But there are other indications that the idea of a Gov. Caitlyn Jenner is not taking off. She is presenting herself as a ‘compassionate disrupter,’ in her words, and one of the things she thinks she can disrupt is some of the traditional political calculus here in California, running as a socially liberal, fiscal conservative. Well, that, at least in the early going, appears to have landed with a bit of a thud.”

“Equality California is the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group,” said Cohn. “They tweeted right away yesterday, ‘Make no mistake, we can’t wait to elect a trans governor of California, but Caitlyn Jenner spent years telling the LGBTQ+ community to trust Donald Trump.’ They say they will take a hard pass. And that may be the least of Caitlyn Jenner’s worries. She broke with President Trump back in 2018, but there’s also just the issue of the demographics in this state. It is deeper and deeper blue every year, and experts point to the recall campaign and the signatures that have come disproportionately from Republican pockets in the state, think Fresno, San Diego, Orange County. They say that as a Republican, Caitlyn Jenner does not have the math on her side.”

Watch below:

 

Image via Shutterstock

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Arrested Florida Rioter Thought He Was Breaking Into the White House and Not the Capitol

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According to the Orlando Sentinel, a QAnon-obsessed Trump supporter from Ocala, Florida recently turned in by his family for storming the Capitol on January 6 didn’t even know the difference between the Capitol and the White House, and thought that he was breaking into the latter.

“Kenneth Kelly, 58, also sent text messages saying he entered the Capitol by breaking windows, an affidavit said. He turned himself in Friday at the Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office in Ocala. He’s facing charges including disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds,” reported David Harris. “Pictures from surveillance video and text messages provided to the FBI show Kelly inside the Capitol, which he kept referring to as the White House, the affidavit said.”

“Inside the White house via breaking in windows,” said one of Kelly’s text messages. “Tree of liberty was watered today.”

According to the Sentinel, more than two dozen Floridians are among those charged in the Capitol riot. Others include a music student from Winter Park who allegedly bludgeoned a Capitol Police officer with a skateboard.

 

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