FRANCE: Magazine Ordered To Pay €20K For Outing Leader Of Neo-Nazi Party

France's Closer Magazine has been ordered to pay €20K for invading the privacy of a neo-Nazi party leader when it outed him as gay. Via Pink News:

Florian Philippot is the deputy leader of the French Front National – which was allied with the British National Party, and has been accused of fostering homophobic violence by aligning itself with aggressive anti-equal marriage factions and violent groups. Earlier this month, Closer published four pages of photos taken in Vienna of Mr Philippot with a television journalist presented as his boyfriend whose face was blurred out. AFP reports Gregoire Lafarge, Mr Philippot’s lawyer, had argued in court that the magazine had not acted in the public interest but purely to make money. “Mr Philippot is admittedly a public figure but he is not a celebrity and has always explained that sexuality is an intimate affair,” he said. “To ‘out’ (someone) is to stigmatise. After sexuality, what will we throw out to the public – religion, health?” added Mr Lafarge, who had initially asked for 50,000 euros in damages.

The magazine has also been ordered to publish the verdict on its front page.

FRANCE: Vice President Of Neo-Nazi National Front Party Outed As Gay

Via the Telegraph:

A French gossip magazine sparked outrage across the political spectrum on Friday by "outing" the far-Right Front National's vice president, Florian Philippot, as homosexual. The rare breach of Gallic press protocol is an embarrassment for the FN, whose attitude towards homosexuals has historically ranged from ambivalent to downright homophobic. Closer, which scored a global scoop in January by publishing photos of French president, François Hollande, visiting his secret lover Julie Gayet, on Friday released pictures of Mr Philippot with his boyfriend, an unnamed TV journalist, on a trip to Vienna last week. "At last a real weekend away from Paris," it headlined, followed by an inside article entitled: "Yes to love for all" – a play on words with France's recent Marriage for All bill legalising gay marriage. Politicians across the board slammed the revelation as an unacceptable breach of Mr Philippot's private life.

Among those denouncing the revelation are National Front head Marine Le Pen and the Socialist Party, which pushed through France's same-sex marriage bill. Two weeks ago the Kremlin lent the National Front €9M in the first installment of a reported €40M payment presumably meant to help tilt France's government to the far right. And today we learn that there's an even worse French version of Ken Mehlman sitting on that pile of Russian money.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: The National Front is a backer of the anti-gay Manif Pour Tous and has supported its numerous, vicious and often violent rallies, as have hate group leaders Brian Brown and Tony Perkins.  Founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has been convicted six times for inciting racial hatred, including for denying that the Holocaust took place. Earlier this year he "joked" that his critics, who include Madonna, will be in the next "batch" headed for the gas chambers.  He has also "joked" that ebola is the "solution" to Europe's immigration problems. Last year Le Pen's daughter, Marine Le Pen, herself a failed candidate for France's presidency, praised the man who committed suicide at Notre Dame Cathedral in protest of same-sex marriage. In February of this year Le Pen's granddaughter, 24 year-old Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, led a massive anti-gay march through the streets of Paris. In January of this year the youth leader for the National Front called for France to institute anti-gay laws similar to those in Russia.