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Latvia swore in the first openly gay president of a Baltic nation on Saturday.
Edgars Rinkēvičs, who has served as the country’s foreign minister since 2011, was elected by parliament in May after incumbent President Egils Levits failed to seek re-election.
Rinkēvičs is known to be a strong supporter of the Ukrainian cause and in his inaugural speech he reaffirmed that commitment.
“Russia’s war and genocide in Ukraine have created a harsh new reality,” Rinkēvičs said. “We will continue to support the heroic Ukrainian people in their struggle for freedom until the final victory of Ukraine. We will continue to fight against Russian imperialism and its perverse world ideology.”
rinkevics announced “proudly” he is gay on Twitter as of November 2014, though the country, a former Soviet republic, is not especially LGBTQ-inclusive. The country allows same-sex civil unions, for example, but not same-sex marriages.
Hours before leaving, Rinkēvičs tweeted that he he would continue to fight for “a legal framework for all kinds of alliances.” He said he knew there would be a “mega hysteria” but ended with the hashtag “#Proudtobegay.”
He is now one of the few openly gay heads of state in the world. Here are the other current and former LGBTQ world leaders.
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Prime Minister of Iceland (2009-2013)
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir served as the Prime Minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. She is believed to be the world’s first openly gay Prime Minister.
She was an active unionist during her nearly 10 years working as a flight attendant, according to the Council of Women World Leaders, a network of women heads of state. In 1978, she was elected to the Althingi, the Icelandic parliament, to represent the capital city of Reykjavík. She served in various government posts, making her the longest-serving Member of Parliament, until she was elected Prime Minister in 2009.
Elio Rupo
Prime Minister of Belgium (2011-2014)
Di Rupo was appointed Prime Minister of Belgium by King Albert II in 2011 and served until 2014.
He was an unlikely prime minister, in part because he was the first native French speaker to lead the majority Dutch-speaking country in 30 years, according to financial time. He was also the first socialist to hold the post since 1974 and called himself an atheist, bbc reported.
In 1996, he was falsely accused of having sex with underage men, he told Belgian journalist Francis Van de Woestyne, who wrote his biography. After the accusation, he said reporters chased him down the street and one of them yelled: “Yet they say you’re gay!” the BBC reported.
“I turned around and said, ‘Yes. So what?’ I will never forget that moment,” Di Rupo said, according to the BBC. “For several seconds there was silence… People were so surprised by my answer that they stopped pushing each other. It was a sincere and truthful response.”
Xavier Bettle
Prime Minister of Luxembourg (2013-Present)
Bettel was first elected prime minister of Luxembourg in 2013, and in 2018 became the world’s first openly gay prime minister to be re-elected for a second term.
Same-sex marriage was legalized in Luxembourg in 2015, and that same year Bettel became the first European Union leader to marry a same-sex couple. bbc reported.
Bettel recently criticized a Hungarian law that bans school educational materials and television programs for people under the age of 18 that are deemed to promote LGBTQ content. Reuters reported. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban defended the law last month despite criticism from human rights groups.
“To be blamed nationally, to be considered abnormal, to be considered a danger to young people, is not realizing that being gay is not an option,” Bettel said, according to Reuters. “But being intolerant is a choice.”
ana branabi
Prime Minister of Serbia (2017-Present)
Brnabic became the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ prime minister of conservative Serbia in 2017 after being nominated by President Aleksandar Vucic.
Human rights groups hailed her appointment, which came particularly in a country where same-sex marriage and adoption are not legal. according to Equaldex, which tracks LGBTQ rights around the world. Gay, lesbian and bisexual people can serve in the military in Serbia, but transgender people cannot.
Although his appointment made history, Brnabic said he hoped public attention would shift to his work.
“Hopefully this happens in three or four days, and then I won’t be known as the gay minister,” she told The Associated Press at the time.
leo varadkar
Prime Minister of Ireland (2017-2020, 2022-present)
Varadkar became Ireland’s first openly gay Taoiseach, or prime minister, in 2017 and served until 2020. Lawmakers appointed him prime minister for the second time in December 2022.
In January 2015, when he was health minister, Varadkar went public in an interview with Ireland’s RTE Radio 1 to encourage the public to support a national referendum on the legalization of same-sex marriage.
“What I really want to say is that I… would like the referendum to pass because I would like to be an equal citizen in my own country, the country in which I am a member of the government,” Varadkar. saying. “And, for the moment, I am not.”
The referendum passed in May 2015, making Ireland the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote.
paolo rodelli
Captain Regent of San Marino (April 2022 – October 2022)
Rondelli served as one of the two regent captains of San Marino, the microstate surrounded by north-central Italy, from April 2022 to October 2022. The positions are the highest elected positions in the country and require six-month terms. .
Monica Cirinnà, an Italian politician and LGBTQ rights advocate, described him as “a man of immense culture and diplomatic and political experience” who has fought for LGBTQ and women’s rights.
“It is a historic day, that fills me with joy and pride”, Cirinnà wrote on Facebook Rondelli’s inauguration day.
honorable mentions
Jerome Saavedra
President of the Canary Islands
Saavedra served as president of the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community off the coast of northwest Africa, twice, from 1982 to 1987, and again from 1991 to 1993, though he did not publicly come out until 2000.
By Kristian Foss
Acting Prime Minister of Norway
Foss briefly served as Norway’s acting prime minister in 2002, making him the world’s first acting prime minister. From 2001 to 2005, he served as Minister of Finance.
In January 2002, he it was news for getting married his partner, Jan Erik Knarbakk. Same-sex marriage was not legalized in Norway until 2009, so Foss and Knarbakk formed a civil union that gave them some of the rights of marriage, although under the law, same-sex couples could not adopt or marry. in churches, CBS reported.
