Leo Varadkar, Ireland's First Openly Gay Prime Mister, Tak Office : The Two-Way : NPR

Contents:

• IRELAND'S FIRST GAY PRIME MISTER LEO VARADKAR FORMALLY ELECTED
• IRELAND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRIME MISTER FORMALLY TAK OFFICE
• LEO VARADKAR, GAY SON OF INDIAN IMMIGRANT, TO BE NEXT IRISH PM
• IRELAND’S NEXT PRIME MISTER IS A NSERVATIVE, GAY 38-YEAR-OLD
• LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE
• LEO VARADKAR BE IRELAND’S FIRST OPENLY GAY MISTER
• LEO VARADKAR ELECTED AS IRELAND'S FIRST GAY PRIME MISTER

IRELAND'S FIRST GAY PRIME MISTER LEO VARADKAR FORMALLY ELECTED

The son of an Indian immigrant has ma Irish history by beg the untry’s youngt and first openly gay prime Varadkar, 38, was formally elected taoiseach at a nfirmatn ceremony the Dáil Dubl after he won the Fe Gael party learship earlier this month.

Leo Varadkar, (born January 18, 1979, Dubl, Ireland), Irish polician who beme lear of the Fe Gael party and Ireland’s first openly gay taoiseach (prime mister) June 2017. The tensely private Varadkar ma headl January 2015 when durg an appearance on Irish natnal rad (RTÉ) he announced that he was gay:. I’m not a half-Indian polician, or a doctor polician or a gay polician for that matter.

Varadkar explaed to listeners, the procs beg the untry’s first openly gay ernment mister. The announcement me some four months before Irish voters approved legalizatn of same-sex marriage a natnal referendum, but had been only jt over two s sce homosexualy had been crimalized Ireland. When his nomatn was approved the Dáil by a vote of 57 to 50 (wh 45 abstentns) on June 14, Varadkar, at age 38, beme the youngt taoiseach Ireland’s history as well as s first openly gay taoiseach and the first to be a member of an ethnic mory.

IRELAND'S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRIME MISTER FORMALLY TAK OFFICE

He also beme the first openly gay man elected to lead the Republic of Ireland, where homosexualy was illegal until jt 24 years ago. Leo Varadkar, one of the hight-rankg openly gay elected officials the world, has offered his rignatn as Ireland's prime mister, although he will ntue as a "retaker" until a new ernment is party, Fe Gael, had failed to w a majory parliamentary electns Febary 8, and no other party did eher, leadg to "polil adlock" Ireland, CNN reports. When he beme prime mister 2017, he was not only the natn's first gay prime mister but s youngt one -- he was then 38 -- and the first one om an ethnic mory group; his father is Indian and his mother is Irish.

He and his partner, Matthew Barrett, met wh notor homophobe Mike Pence 2019, and on the same vis he gave a speech at the Naval Observatory praisg diversy.

LEO VARADKAR, GAY SON OF INDIAN IMMIGRANT, TO BE NEXT IRISH PM

The son of an Indian immigrant who me out as gay 2015 will be the next Irish prime mister, after he was voted lear of the untry’s ma erng Varadkar’s victory the Fe Gael learship ntt on Friday, which took place after outgog PM Enda Kenny announced his rignatn last month, marks another signifint step forward for equaly the untry, after 2015’s gay marriage well as beg Ireland’s first gay prime mister, Varadkar, 38, will also bee the untry’s youngt lear, and the first om an ethnic mory background. Although Varadkar’s centre-right polics are clearly nservative, he portrays the image of a new, progrsive Ireland, symbolised bt May 2015 when the Republic voted overwhelmgly favour of gay marriage.

“I thk ’s really signifint that both his party and the media Ireland foced on his polici, rather than him simply beg a gay man who wants to lead the untry, ” said Brian Fnegan, the edor of Gay Communy News Dubl. “It is a sign of how much Ireland has changed and moved on that no one really r if he is gay here. Irish policians were among the last sectors of our society to e out of the closet but now at least we’ve got one gay man and a lbian, Cathere Zappone, both the bet.

I’m not a half-Indian polician, or a doctor polician, or a gay polician, for that matter. Ireland is to get s youngt prime mister, and the first who is openly gay. In 2015, as Mister of Health, Varadkar me out on Irish natnal rad, jog a handful of other openly gay policians Ireland support of the Marriage Equaly Bill, which allows same sex upl to marry.

IRELAND’S NEXT PRIME MISTER IS A NSERVATIVE, GAY 38-YEAR-OLD

Latvia swore the first openly gay print of a Baltic natn Rkēvičs, who sce 2011 was the untry’s foreign mister, was elected by Parliament May after Print Egils Levs did not seek re-electn. ”Rkēvičs “proudly” announced he is gay on Twter November 2014, though the untry, a former Soviet republic, is not pecially LGBTQ-clive. ” He said he knew there would be “mega hysteria, ” but he end wh the hashtag “#Proudtobegay.

LATVIA BE 7TH NATN TO BE LED BY AN OPENLY GAY HEAD OF STATE

”He is one of jt a few openly gay heads of state the world. She is thought to be the first openly gay prime mister the was an active unnist her nearly 10 years workg as a flight attendant, acrdg to the Council of Women World Lears, a work of female heads of state. After the accatn, he said, he was chased down the street by reporters, one of whom yelled, “Yet they say you’re a homosexual!

LEO VARADKAR BE IRELAND’S FIRST OPENLY GAY MISTER

”Xavier Bettel Prime Mister of Luxembourg (2013-prent)Luxembourg Prime Mister Xavier Bettel at a news nference Belgra, Serbia, on July Vojovic / APBettel was first elected prime mister of Luxembourg 2013, and 2018 he beme the first openly gay prime mister the world to be re-elected for a send marriage beme legal Luxembourg 2015, and the same year Bettel beme the first servg European Unn lear to marry a same-sex partner, the BBC recently cricized a Hungarian law that bans school tnal materials and TV shows for people unr 18 that are emed to promote LGBTQ ntent, Rters reported. “To be natnally blamed, to be nsired as not normal, to be nsired as a danger for young people — ’s not realizg that beg gay is not a choice, ” Bettel said, acrdg to Rters.

Gay, lbian and bisexual people n serve the ary, but transgenr people nnot. “Hopefully this will blow over three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay mister, ” she told The Associated Prs at the Varadkar Prime Mister of Ireland (2017-20, 2022-prent)Irish Prime Mister Leo Varadkar Bssels on June 30. Ludovic Mar / AFP - Getty Imag fileVaradkar beme Ireland’s first openly gay Taoiseach, or prime mister, 2017 and served until 2020.

LEO VARADKAR ELECTED AS IRELAND'S FIRST GAY PRIME MISTER

Ireland’s health mister has bee the first member of a ernment Dubl to clare that he is as a possible future prime mister, Leo Varadkar told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ Rad 1 on Sunday morng: “I am a gay man. ”His claratn was ma jt months before a natnal referendum on givg gay marriag equal stat Irish law. Varadkar said the taoiseach even asked him if he had vised one of Dubl’s most famo gay bars.

” He add that was his belief that Ireland was ready to have a gay prime Roman Catholic Church domated Irish polics until the 1980s and the untry legalised homosexual acts 1993, but Ireland has bee much more liberal recent years as the Church’s public fluence waned the wake of a strg of child sex abe Natnal Women’s Council Ireland was one of the first anisatns to praise Varadkar, scribg his “brave and scere terview” Gay Swchboard work tweeted rponse to his revelatn “Well done. But after several missteps, he now tak up the role for a send time, wh the glow of optimism McQuillan/Getty ImagEd O’LoughlReportg om DublWhen Leo Varadkar beme Ireland’s prime mister 2017, he was hailed as a h face European polics, only 38 years old, his untry’s first openly gay lear and the first wh South Asian herage — a personifitn of a rapidly mornizg he returns to office on Saturday, a prearranged power-sharg al, wh that ial optimism dissipated, and wh qutn marks over his judgment and learship Varadkar, who traed as a doctor, was one of Europe’s youngt heads of ernment when he took over om Enda Kenny, then his party’s lear, who had bee embroiled a police whistle-blowg sndal.

Varadkar announced that he was gay 2015 while servg as health mister. That statement, durg a referendum about legalizg gay marriage, was ced by some as havg ntributed to the measure’s, as prime mister, or taoiseach, Mr. Varadkar, a nservative who had once opposed abortn and allowg gay upl to adopt, was a symbol of Ireland’s transn to a socially liberal, secular by the time Mr.