Leo Varadkar is the first openly gay person to lead Ireland’s government, and at the age of 38, he is the youngest person who has ever held this post.
Following a vote in the Irish parliament earlier today, Leo Varadkar was elected to the position of taoiseach, which is the Irish word for prime minister. He has chosen his political adversary, Simon Coveney, from the Fine Gael party, which is currently in power, to serve as his deputy. Varadkar is seen as a liberal leader despite the fact that his party leans to the center-right politically. This is due to the fact that he is young, openly gay, and comes from a diverse ethnic background.
The election of Leo Varadkar as the next leader of Fine Gael, the party that holds the most seats in Ireland’s governing coalition, took place today and made history. This makes him the first out gay person to hold the office of Taoiseach, which is the Irish word for prime minister. He will be Ireland’s first head of government who is openly gay, and at the age of 38, he will be the youngest person to ever take the role.
Varadkar will become only the fourth openly LGBTQ head of government in the history of the globe, and he will be the second one in power at the same time, joining Xavier Bettel as the prime minister of Luxembourg. In addition to this, Varadkar will also be the first-ever prime minister of the country to be a member of an ethnic minority. His mother is Irish, and his father is an immigrant from India.
Varadkar is now serving as the Minister of Social Protection. He is a member of the Fine Gael party, which is a center-right party that takes policies that are economically conservative. He was first elected to parliament at the age of 27, and he was serving as health minister when he made his sexual orientation public. He was also actively campaigning for marriage equality in the lead-up to the historic referendum in May 2015 that made it possible for Ireland to legalize marriage equality.
Ireland became the first nation in the world to achieve marriage equality through a popular vote and the 18th nation in the world to have complete marriage equality as a result of the referendum. In November of that same year, same-s*x marriages got their start.
A country that had only decriminalized same-s*x encounters in 1993 and allowed divorces for different-s*x couples in 1995 prior to the introduction of marriage equality had undergone a sea change in attitudes by the time marriage equality was introduced.
In preparation for the referendum in May 2015, HRC formed a partnership with the YES Equality coalition in order to assist in ensuring victory at the polls. Staff from HRC traveled to Ireland in order to meet with Irish advocates and discuss effective strategies while also being present during the country’s successful referendum.
Varadkar has been compared favorably to other leaders in Western politics who represent a generational shift, such as Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron in their respective countries, who are respectively from Canada and France. The politics of polarization that are practiced by people like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin stand in stark contrast to the openness and social liberalism that are exemplified by these world leaders.
Leo Varadkar has been sent heartfelt congratulations from HRC on his election to the position of leader of the Fine Gael party. His expected ascension to the position of prime minister follows closely on the heels of Taiwan becoming the first country in Asia to legalize marriage equality. In spite of the progress that has been made in Ireland and Taiwan, the global community is still witnessing ongoing acts of violence and atrocities committed against LGBTQ individuals in countries such as Bangladesh, Chechnya, and Indonesia.
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