WI: A President Came Out As Homosexual

Well looking historically, William II of England (William I's eldest son) was known to be gay and the bishops refused to give him full burial rights due to this. Edward II (Edward Longshanks' son) is another suspect, and this wasn't embellished by Braveheart.

I think as they were kings, and absolute/semi-absolute monarchs, they were tolerated at best, but hardly condoned.
 
It depends where he's a president of.
One of the more accepting countries would probably be France. In France it has long been known and accepted that politicians are real people who have relationships, sex lives and all that sort of thing.
In the US or with a UK PM.... Even putting aside the gay factor, it would be a bit weird for a leader to be active unless it was as part of a well established relationship (which would remove the sudden revelation factor).

Well looking historically, William II of England (William I's eldest son) was known to be gay and the bishops refused to give him full burial rights due to this. Edward II (Edward Longshanks' son) is another suspect, and this wasn't embellished by Braveheart.

I think as they were kings, and absolute/semi-absolute monarchs, they were tolerated at best, but hardly condoned.

The thing with homosexuality before the 20th century was that nobody thought gay people actually existed. The idea wasn't really there.
Just like drinking too much, having sex with men was just a sin that some people were into (albeit one of the nastier ones).
Even in those few societies where it was socially acceptable being gay just wasn't a thing.
 
Luxembourg's head of state is Grand Duke Henri, a practicing Roman Catholic, who has been married to his wife Maria for 34 years, with five children. I believe you mean the head of government, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel :p

We've had two other openly gay heads of government in European countries, Iceland's Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Belgium's Elio Di Rupo.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Etienne Schneider, is also openly gay.

But, as far as I am aware, no country has ever had an openly gay head of state. Hopefully one day not too far in the future, but so far, no.

I stand corrected, after a fashion: chalk it up to the US perspective that the head of state and head of government here are one and the same. (Being a citizen of a 300 million + überpower tends to skew one's views somewhat...:rolleyes:) However, there still has yet to be a head of state/government (take your pick) of a true world power that has been demonstrated to be openly gay.
 
As some have mentioned, if a president came out as gay, they'd likely be married and the scandal would be associated with that - not necessarily that he's gay. Sure, that would be an issue for a minority of the population...but the scandal that would erupt from his lying to his wife, family and country, would overshadow that, IMO.

Now, if the president was single - a bachelor - I think it would have less impact. People would be stunned, and it would be historic, but it wouldn't be career-ending like if it was the 1980s ... or even the 90s.
 
I have a good friend who is convinced that Obama is gay and that Michelle is actually a man named Michael. I think my friend is wrong.
 
Even if the President was married, I think it could be played off as "I realized I was gay after our children were born, and we decided to stay together for their sake, until they were older."
 
No ones asking what the diplomatic implications would be? particularly with countries such as say, Saudi Arabia? that's always been what I've wondered about most when it comes to situations as such.
 
It depends where he's a president of.
One of the more accepting countries would probably be France. In France it has long been known and accepted that politicians are real people who have relationships, sex lives and all that sort of thing.
In the US or with a UK PM.... Even putting aside the gay factor, it would be a bit weird for a leader to be active unless it was as part of a well established relationship (which would remove the sudden revelation factor).

France is the country where the first and only female Prime ministre, a socialist one, openly said "the english are all gay ! There must be 25% of them.
(she also said "the japanese live like ants.)

So I strongly doubt the reaction would be very different from those in America or Britain.

Of course France, like other western countries, has become openly and legally tolerant on homosexuality.

But it's probable that there would be discrimination against a gay candidate to the presidency.

The french model of head of State is virility, be it for male of female candidates.

What I think is that the whole point, in any western country, is about this question : is the gay candidate to the top office a militant of the cause or not ?

If yes, I think he or she will never win election because a large majority don't feel confortable with militants of the gay cause.

If he or she just happens to be gay, there is number 2 question : does he/she seem to be a potential great head of State or just the usual politician ?

If potential great head of State, he/she will overcome the unavowed but enduring reluctance of quite many people towards gays. If just the usual politician, he/she Will be defeated.
 
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