Current Affairs

Latvian foreign minister ‘proudly’ comes out as gay: ‘Good luck all of you…’

  • Nov 06 2014
  • Written by Joseph McCormick
Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

Latvia’s foreign minister has come out as gay on his official Twitter page, announcing he is “proud to be gay”.

Edgars Rinkevics announced to his more than 13k followers that he wanted to “proudly announce” that he is gay.

Following the message the 41-year-old wrote: “Good luck all of you”.

In a second tweet, Rinkevics in Latvian vowed to campaign to allow “all partnerships” to be recognised by the Latvian Government, saying he “will fight for” it.

The second tweet ended with the hashtag “proud to be gay”.

Rinkevics’ tweet in English announcing that he is gay was retweeted over 400 times.

While gay and lesbian people are allowed to serve openly in the military and have some legal protections against discrimination in the workplace, there is currently no legal recognition of relationships between gay and lesbian couples.

Last year, Latvia was condemned by Amnesty International for lacking protection against homophobic and transphobic crime.

Same-sex relationships are banned by the Latvian constitution.

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