Ireland is set to have their first gay Taoiseach, with Leo Varadkar, a 38-year-old, openly gay son of an Indian immigrant, replacing Enda Kenny as their new prime minister. In his victory speech, he told his audience:
“If my election today shows anything, it is that prejudice has no hold in this Republic.”
The Fine Gael party elected Varadkar as their new leader on Friday, and unless anything goes drastically wrong, he’ll be officially voted in on June 13, when Irish parliament next sits.
Varadkhar is a doctor, and has become Ireland’s youngest ever prime minister as well as the first openly gay PM. His sexuality was an open secret until 2015, when he came out during an interview on RTÉ Radio:
“It’s not something that defines me. I’m not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter. It’s just part of who I am, it doesn’t define me, it is part of my character I suppose.”
Fine Gael are a centre-right party who have Christian, conservative roots. While many are celebrating Varadkar’s victory as a win for LGBTQ rights in a historically Catholic country, others are lamenting his pro-life stance that promises to continue to stymie the fight for legal abortion in Ireland.
There needs to be a word for when your country elects a gay, half-Indian leader and you can’t even celebrate because it’s Leo Varadkar.
— ? amy o’connor ? (@amyohconnor) June 2, 2017
Fair play. Give women rights over their bodies and please don’t criminalise the poor, go after the Anglo lads who caused real damage
— Rubber Bandits (@Rubberbandits) June 2, 2017
Politicians is politicians, I guess. Can’t win ’em all.
Source: SMH.
Image: Nazrie Abu Seman / Getty
