WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
August 25, 2018
By Siobhán O’Grady
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/08/25/last-time-pope-visited-ireland-homosexuality-was-crime-now-irish-prime-minister-is-gay/
In 2015, when Leo Varadkar was serving as Ireland’s health minister, he came out as a gay man on national radio.
The country was preparing to vote in a same-sex marriage referendum, and Varadkar told the radio host that his sexuality is “not a secret, but it’s not something that everyone would necessarily know.”
He also said, “It’s not something that defines me.”
Two-and-a-half years later, Varadkar, whose father was an Indian immigrant, was named prime minister. He is Ireland’s first openly gay leader, the first leader from a minority background and, at 38 at the time of his appointment, the country’s youngest prime minister.
On Saturday, Varadkar welcomed Pope Francis to Ireland, a nation that has radically changed since the last papal visit, in 1979. At that tim, homosexuality was still a crime. Now, the country’s prime minister is gay.
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