In 2015 Irish politician Leo Varadkar publicly announced he is gay
In 2015 on this day Irish politician Leo Varadkar publicly announced he was gay during a radio interview. The politician shared the information about his sexuality as the country headed towards a national referendum on same-sex marriage. Varadkar made the announcement on his 36th birthday.
“I am a gay man, it’s not a secret but it’s not something that everybody would know,” Varadkar said.
“I have always put the career and job and politics first. I am a very private person.
“I didn’t give much time to my personal life at least until the last couple of years. It’s only in the last two years I have given time to personal life.”
Leo Varadkar was elected to Irish parliament in 2007 and was appointed to the position of Health Minister in July 2014. The politician told the interviewer that his sexuality did not define him.
“It’s not something that defines me, I’m not a half-Indian politician or a doctor politician, I’m not a gay politician for that matter, it’s just part of who I am,” Varadkar said.
Four months later the country voted overwhelmingly to support marriage equality.
In June 2017 he was elected leader of his political party Fine Gael, making him Ireland’s first same-sex attracted leader, and the fourth gay head of state in the world.
As Taoiseach, Ireland’s name for their Prime Minister, Varadkar enjoyed incredibly high popularity in opinion polls and was expected to be returned at the 2020 election. However his party ended up coming third and he resigned as the country’s leader.
The new Irish government ended up being a three-way coalition between Fine Gael, rivals Fianna Fáil and the Green party. In the new government Vradkar was appointed minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. In December 2020 he returned to the role of Taoiseach, a position he held until 2024.
Frankie Knuckles was born in 1955
DJ Frankie Knuckles was born on this day. Knuckles was born Francis Warren Nicholls, Jr. in the Bronx area of NYC first started out as a disco DJ in the 1970’s playing alongside childhood friend Larry Levan at venue’s like the legendary Continental Baths.
In 1977 Knuckles moved to Chicago to be the resident DJ at a new club called ‘The Warehouse’ whose name would be shorted to ‘house’ a name that was then given to the distinctive genre of music being played.
Knuckles released music of his own, alongside promoting other artists through his DJing. He produced many early house tracks including Jamie Principle’s ‘Baby Wants to Ride’ and Robert Owen’s ‘Tears’. Knuckles had a big hit of his own in 1991 with ‘The Whistling Song’.
His skills as a remixer were sought by many artists included Michael Jackson, Lisa Stansfield, Pet Shop Boys, Hercules and Love Affair, Janet Jackson and many others.
Frankie Knuckles was included into the Dance Music Hall of Fame in 2005 for his achievements as a DJ.
Also on this day in history…
In 1996 TV show Friends brought a same-sex marriage into homes around the world when Carol, Ross’s ex-wife married her partner, Susan. LGBTI rights activist Candace Gingrich, played the minister on the scene that was watched in the USA by 31.6 million people.
In 1999 Zimbabwe’s first president of Zimbabwe, Canaan Sodindo Banana is convicted on 11 counts of sodomy. At the time his successor president Mugabe, who had replaced Banana in 1987, was scapegoating homosexuals as the reason for Zimbabwe’s ills. Banana served six months of a 10-year sentence before moving to the UK for political asylum. He died in 2003, his wife later claimed that he was bisexual.
In 2004 the first episode of TV show The L Word aired in the USA with Jenny moving to California to be with her boyfriend Tim. After she meets gay couple Bette and Tina she begins a journey of exploring her own sexuality. The show returned to the screens as the revamped The L Word: Generation Q.
This post was originally published in 2021 and his been updated.
