2009 has been a great year for power gays and lesbians in politics — and they’ve been shattering all those invisible glass ceilings into a million shards. Earlier this year, we saw Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir of Iceland become the world’s first gay head of state. And now, with the latest results in Germany’s elections just in, the joke on the streets of Europe’s largest economy is that it now has two Kanzlerinnen – Angela Merkel and the openly gay Guido Westerwelle, who led the Free Democratic Party to its largest win ever.
Westerwelle’s political coming out was five years ago in 2004 — when he brought his partner to Merkel’s 50th birthday party. Nobody blinked an eyelid then and nobody’s blinking an eyelid now.
Several years ago, another gay politician from the Social Democratic Party — Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin — was floated as a possible SPD candidate for the Chancellorship but alas his chances melted away like butter in a frying pan as soon as he formed a coalition with the socialist The Left party.
Westerwelle has strongly advocated for greater civil rights and adoption rights for same-sex couples, but of course, how well he performs in his new job will remain to be seen. For now, he and Merkel will have one helluva job leading Germany out of the recession.
5 Responses
February 26th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
they shud b able to love who they want when they want.
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:03 am
So uh… As a MtF transgender pre op. As a girl with a penis where would I fit in? O_o
March 7th, 2010 at 7:11 am
Very moving life story, and very inspiring how you fight for the change you want to see in the world. I wish you all the best for your future and your IRQR will grow even more in the future!
March 7th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
he is always play and advetise about himself i am iranianan gay in isparta turkey i got in horrible problems but he do not care about this at all be honest with your self
March 8th, 2010 at 6:16 am
I am very sorry to hear that Hassan, and of course I dont know anything about your situation or relationhsip.
But ragarding the advertisement I have to say that this is a very necessary step to gain awareness for any help organization. People need to hear a story in order to understand. And I guess that is why Arsham is telling his. I hope that interviews like this will help him get more awareness and raise more money to help even more people including you in the future.
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