Openly Gay Politicians
As of October 2009, there are several prominent German politicians who are openly gay. Among them are Berlin's mayor Klaus Wowereit (from the Social Democratic Party, having outed himself with the famous words "Ich bin schwul – und das ist auch gut so!" ), Volker Beck and Gerhard Schick (from the Green Party), Johannes Kahrs (from the Social Democratic Party), Stefan Kaufmann (from the Christian Democratic Union), Michael Kauch and Guido Westerwelle, the current Foreign Minister and former head of the liberal Free Democratic Party. In addition, Hamburg's former mayor Ole von Beust (Christian Democratic Union) didn't deny anything when his father outed him but considered it private matter. After leaving office he began talking about his homosexuality. In July 2007, Karin Wolff, then Minister of Education for Hesse, came out as a lesbian.
Read more about this topic: LGBT In Germany
Famous quotes containing the words openly gay, openly, gay and/or politicians:
“You can feel it, in a hundred little ways year after year. It is so certain and inevitable, that the next century will be a time in which it is not simply safe, but commonplace, to be openly gay.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“At the moment when a man openly makes known his difference of opinion from a well-known party leader, the whole world thinks that he must be angry with the latter. Sometimes, however, he is just on the point of ceasing to be angry with him. He ventures to put himself on the same plane as his opponent, and is free from the tortures of suppressed envy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“And I would love you all the Day,
Every Night would kiss and play,
If with me you’d fondly stray
Over the Hills and far away.”
—John Gay (1685–1732)
“The American mood, perhaps even the American character, has changed. There are few manifestations any longer of the old American self-assurance which so irritated Dickens.... Instead, there is a sense of frustration so perceptible that even our politicians ... have attempted to exploit it.”
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)