FIRST FRENCH MINISTER COMES OUT AS GAY
A veteran right-wing politician and ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy became France's first serving government minister to openly acknowledge his homosexuality on Friday. Roger Karoutchi, 57-year-old junior minister for parliamentary relations, "came out" in an interview with AFP ahead of the publication of his memoirs.
"Yes, I have a life," he said. "I'm neither living a lie, nor flaunting anything. I discuss it naturally. I have a partner and I'm happy with him. As I'm happy, I see no reason why I should hide that."
France traditionally affords public figures more privacy in their personal lives than other Western democracies and -- despite growing public acceptance of homosexuality -- Karoutchi is the first minister to come out. Paris's Socialist mayor, Betrand Delanoe, is the country's best known gay politician, having revealed his homosexuality on television in 1998, before his election, and his career does not appear to have suffered.
"Yes, I have a life," he said. "I'm neither living a lie, nor flaunting anything. I discuss it naturally. I have a partner and I'm happy with him. As I'm happy, I see no reason why I should hide that."
France traditionally affords public figures more privacy in their personal lives than other Western democracies and -- despite growing public acceptance of homosexuality -- Karoutchi is the first minister to come out. Paris's Socialist mayor, Betrand Delanoe, is the country's best known gay politician, having revealed his homosexuality on television in 1998, before his election, and his career does not appear to have suffered.
