Gays and Lesbians Moving Up in World Leadership

Published January 31, 2009 @ 11:34AM PT

Folks who thought that President Barack Obama would be the most surprising world leader of 2009 certainly got a reality check this week, with Iceland naming the world's first lesbian prime minister, Johanna Siguardardottir. She takes office on an interim basis only, but talk about making history. If Sen. Hillary Clinton put 18 million cracks in the ultimate glass ceiling, Siguardardottir put 6.7 billion cracks in it and blew the damn thing to pieces by becoming the world's first and only openly lesbian leader.

Siguardardottir is the latest lesbian or gay politician to make a name for themselves on the world stage. But she's not the only one. Last month, Nepal Member of Parliament Sunil Pant, one of our LGBT heroes of 2008, spoke at the United Nations on behalf of a UN statement calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality. As Nepal's only openly gay MoP, Pant is influential in creating awareness about LGBT issues in Nepal - both as a politician and as a founder of the Blue Diamond Society, a Nepali LGBT organization. Many believe that Pant's activism helped push Nepal's Supreme Court to rule in 2008 that gays and lesbians should have equal marriage rights - becoming the first South Asian country to recognize (or pledge to recognize) same-sex marriage.

And just last week, France's Junior Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Roger Karoutchi, came out. Surprising? For sure, since Karoutchi is considered fairly conservative and a veteran right-wing politician. But he becomes the first openly gay government minister in France's history, and he did so under seemingly genuine terms. To hear Karoutchi explain it, "Yes, I have a life. I'm neither living a lie, nor flaunting anything. I discuss it naturally. I have a partner and I'm happy with him. As I'm happy, I see no reason why I should hide that." That's because there is no good reason to hide it.

And on January 1, openly gay Judge Edwin Cameron became the newest member of South Africa's Constitutional Court, the nation's highest judicial arm. Cameron, who is also HIV-positive, is a public health hero in South Africa, having been a champion for the rights of sexual minorities and the rights of people with HIV/AIDS. His appointment was a long-time coming -- Nelson Mandela wanted him on the court in the late 1990s, but former President Thabo Mbeki resisted. Mbeki finished his presidency in September 2008, and four months later, Cameron was appointed. Delayed justice, but justice none the same.

As these four people demonstrate, we're only one month into 2009, but already this is turning out to be the year of the LGBT world leader.

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Comments (1)

Changes have come and I hope they don't stop. As Prime Minister of Iceland, Johanna Siguadardottir sets a high bar for progress. Although Roger Karoutchi is conservative, progress has also been made by the fact that he hasn't lied about his sexual orientation. For South Africa which has a violent past, having Judge Edwin Cameron on the Constitutional Court is very important because he's an advocate of gays/lesbians and people who have HIV/AIDS.

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 01/31/2009 @ 12:33PM PT
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.