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Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic is a leader who claims to be LGBT and has children from a relationship with his partner. Photo/Reuters
WASHINGTON – In free countries, especially Europe, sexual orientation status is not a barrier for someone to become a leader of a country or government. That makes many state leaders have LGBT status, whether gay or lesbian.
However, LGBT is still seen as a deviant and forbidden sexual orientation in certain countries. It’s just that, in countries in Europe that have allowed same-sex marriage, they also see that gay leaders are still a strange thing.
Here are 7 state and government leaders with LGBT status, whether gay or lesbi.
1. President Terpilih Latvia Edgars Rinkevics
Photo/Reuters
The Latvian parliament elects Edgars Rinkevics to become president. Previously Rinkevics had served as foreign minister for a long time.
Rinkevics will represent Latvia, a member state of the European Union and NATO, at the NATO summit in Vilnius in July.
Rinkevics, 49, took up a ceremonial role as president after serving as Latvia’s foreign minister since 2011.
Latvia is making history as Europe’s first openly gay head of state.
In a statement on social media, Rinkevics said he was honored and humbled to have been selected. “I will do my best to serve the Latvian people well. I thank the MPs for their trust,” he said.
Rinkevics publicly came out as gay in November 2014, posting the status on Twitter. “I am proud to announce that I am gay… Best of luck to you all.”
In a second tweet at the time, he spoke of improving the legal status of same-sex relations, saying that Latvia needed to create a legal framework for all types of partnerships. He signed with the hashtag #Proudtobegay.
Since then, same-sex marriage has not been recognized in the northern European country, but civil marriages have been possible since last year. In the ILGA-Europe Map and Rainbow Index 2023, Latvia is ranked 37th out of 49 EU countries.
