Gay Lawmaker, Leo Varadkar, Is in Line to Be Ireland’s Prime Minister
He also surprised his liberal admirers by reaching out to the party’s anti-abortion faction, saying
that Fine Gael "should be a warm house for those who have socially conservative views." In 2015, Mr. Varadkar was widely praised for bravery and honesty when he said publicly that he was gay, the first Irish government minister to do so.
Leo Varadkar, who was chosen on Friday by the Fine Gael party to be its leader,
and therefore the head of the center-right governing coalition, will be the first openly gay taoiseach (as Ireland’s prime minister is called), and, at 38, the youngest.
By ED O’LOUGHLINJUNE 2, 2017
DUBLIN — A gay son of an Indian immigrant is now all but certain to become the next prime minister of Ireland, a country
that has rapidly been leaving its conservative Roman Catholic social traditions behind.
Mr. Varadkar clinched the Fine Gael leadership on Friday by defeating his only rival,
Simon Coveney, a fellow cabinet minister, in an internal party election.
He told The Irish Times in 2015 that he was raised Catholic
but was "not a particularly religious person." Mr. Varadkar trained as a doctor — a general practitioner — and became involved in politics while still in medical school.
By far the biggest menace on the Irish horizon, however, is Britain’s looming withdrawal from the European Union, or "Brexit," which threatens to stir divisions within
and between the Republic of Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland, where decades of sectarian struggle largely subsided after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998.