Sam Smith wins Oscar, flubs dedication
Gay singer and songwriter Sam Smith won an Oscar Sunday night with co-writer Jimmy Napes for his original song “The Writing’s on the Wall” from the James Bond film Spectre, and dedicated the award to “the LGBT community all around the world.” Smith suggested in his acceptance speech, however, that he might be the first gay man to win an Oscar. As this extensive list shows, he was not.
Mya Taylor wins at Spirit Awards
Trans actress Mya Taylor won best supporting actress at the Spirit Awards, an awards ceremony for independent filmmaking, becoming the first trans actress to win any major film award. Taylor won for her role in Tangerine, a film famously shot using only an iPhone.
Read more at Entertainment Weekly.
Indonesian politician calls for death to gays
In the midst of an ongoing crackdown on gay rights in Indonesia, a former cabinet minister has called on Twitter for gay people to be killed. Tifatul Sembering is the former information and communications minister for the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party. Sembering later took down the tweet.
Switzerland narrowly rejects same-sex marriage ban
Voters in Switzerland rejected a bill by a thin one percent margin that would have challenged the path to equal marriage. The bill, proposed by the Christian Democratic People’s Party, would have quietly defined marriage as between a man and a woman under the guise of a change to the tax code. Same-sex marriage is not yet legal in Switzerland.
Romanian coalition gathers signatures against equal marriage
A Romanian coalition attempting to pass a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage has gathered two million signatures, over a tenth of the country’s population. The coalition only requires half a million signatures to trigger a referendum on the ammendment.
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