Gay Leaders and the Far Right

When Leo Varadkar assumed power in Ireland on Wednesday, he blazed a trail of firsts: At 38 years old, the biracial son of an Indian immigrant father and Irish mother became the country's youngest-ever taoiseach, or prime minister. He also became the first openly gay man elected to lead the Republic of Ireland, where homosexuality was illegal until just 24 years ago.

Despite Varadkar's firsts, Irish media and voters are "not obsessed about his sexuality or his racial origins," The Guardian's Henry McDonald tells NPR's Ari Shapiro. Rather, it's the center-right politician's policies that have been the subject of significant debate.

These rightward-leaning economic stances stand in contrast with Varadkar's generally liberal positions on abortion rights and other social issues — and they drew criticism from Varadkar's rival for his party's leadership, Simon Coveney. Varadkar, who defeated Coveney earlier this month, appointed him the party's deputy on Tuesday.
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I am happy to be corrected, but I always associated gay men with leftist politics. The political terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution (1789–1799).

I believe that Leo is only the third European head of state to be openly gay.

Iceland Prime Minister: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (2009, first openly gay person in the world to be elected head of government)
Belgium Prime Minister, Elio Di Rupo (PS) (2011, first openly gay man to head a Belgian national government in modern times)
Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister): Leo Varadkar - 2017

Quote: Pacomartin

I am happy to be corrected, but I always associated gay men with leftist politics.

Same here. Maybe a few are going off the reservation same as a few blacks are. I wonder if they are looked down upon same as a conservative black politician will be?

Having right winged economic policy (less regulations, less taxes, less welfare) and being gay have nothing to do with each other. I know a few gay people who are always socially liberal but span both sides of the economic policy spectrum. Gay people like their money too.

It's not really tough to figure out why it would be difficult to join and support a party you otherwise have positions you agree with when they're basically marginalizing your existence.

That's not just a causal difference on an issue.

Quote: boymimbo

Having right winged economic policy (less regulations, less taxes, less welfare) and being gay have nothing to do with each other. I know a few gay people who are always socially liberal but span both sides of the economic policy spectrum. Gay people like their money too.

Logically, that makes sense. There are at least 10 LGBT billionaires in the world. I am just saying it is difficult for me to envision.

I remember someone saying to Oprah Winfrey (net worth ~ $3 billion) that she should open schools for disadvantaged girls in America instead of in Africa. Her reply was simply that everyone in America has opportunity. She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14. She seems to be her own shining example of what is possible to achieve in the USA.

So Oprah Winfrey could logically embrace some of the more conservative tenants of the Republican Party, but it is impossible for me to imagine her attending a Republican event.

This is just highlighting that stereotypes usually have some kind of accurate basis. There will always be exceptions and people will generally be surprised to hear about them.

Slight correct. Leo is the 4th openly gay prime minister, since 2009, not the 3rd.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (Prime Minister of Iceland)
Elio Di Rupo (Prime Minister of Belgium)
Xavier Bettel (Prime Minister of Luxembourg)
Leo Varadkar (Prime Minister of Iceland)

Quote: Aussie

This is just highlighting that stereotypes usually have some kind of accurate basis. There will always be exceptions and people will generally be surprised to hear about them.

Leo Varadkar interred under a Republican congressman "Jack" Quinn, Jr. a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1993 to 2005. Varadkar is regularly attacked as a Thatcherite by his critics, but he is more conventionally called a right-center politician. He spearheaded a publicity drive against so-called “welfare cheats”, which was condemned as a “hate campaign” by a former social security inspector. He also outlawed strikes in “essential” public services angering unions. He does not support abortion on request, and in 2010 said he did not agree with termination for rape victims, a position he has since revised.




Perhaps my stereotype of gay politicians as liberal politicians is more of an American perspective.

What's the difference, a politician is a
politician. They're all bought and
paid for, except Trump. They all
suck. I guess the Gay politicians will
suck more, if you get the pun..

Quote: Pacomartin

I am happy to be corrected, but I always associated gay men with leftist politics.

People who fear persecution favor liberal governments pretty consistently.

Quote:

The political terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution (1789–1799).

I think it was a matter of happenstance that one side was literally on the left, the other on the right, in the building that housed delegates of some kind. I think most conservatives are happy with the designations of "left and right" even though the old superstition about left handed people has almost vanished now. I am in fact suspicious of the new push for "red" and "blue"; is this an attempt to get away from "left and right" in politics?

Quote: Pacomartin

Logically, that makes sense. There are at least 10 LGBT billionaires in the world. I am just saying it is difficult for me to envision.

I remember someone saying to Oprah Winfrey (net worth ~ $3 billion) that she should open schools for disadvantaged girls in America instead of in Africa. Her reply was simply that everyone in America has opportunity. She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14. She seems to be her own shining example of what is possible to achieve in the USA.

So Oprah Winfrey could logically embrace some of the more conservative tenants of the Republican Party, but it is impossible for me to imagine her attending a Republican event.

This only makes sense if you believe "Rich"="Republican." It does not.