Elio Di Rupo An openly gay man has been sworn in as the Prime Minister of Belgium. Elio Di Rupo, 60, is an atheist, socialist and francophone who frequently wears trademark vivid red bow ties. He was brought up in impoverished circumstances and rose to become a doctor of chemistry before switching to politics in 1982. Since 1999 he has led Belgium's most staunchly socialist political party. Di Rupo was outed in 1996 when it was wrongly claimed he had had sex with an underage youth. He becomes Prime Minister after Belgian politicians had not been able to form a government for 18 months and joins Johanna Siguroardttir, prime Minister of Iceland, as the one of the highest-placed glbt people currently serving in world politics. Last month Anna Grodzka became Poland's first transexual MP. In the USA gay Congressman Barney Franks, who came out in 1987, has announced he will retire in 2013.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Saturday, 10th December 2011 - 8:40pm