This Is What LGBTQ Heads of State Look Like

The first openly LGBTQ heads of state in the modern world

Jun 01, 2025

Many heads of state throughout the ancient world were openly LGBTQ. Now at last we bring you the first openly LGBT heads of state (all are cisgender) in the modern world in chronological order:

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

The modern world’s very first LGBT head of state also happened to be the first female Prime Minister of Iceland.

Born in 1942, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir served as Head of State from 2009-2012. She was also Iceland’s longest serving member of Parliament.

Surprisingly, she got her start as a flight attendant for Icelandic Airlines. In that role she became active in the trade union movement and was elected to parliament in 1978 for the Social Democratic Party.

In 2010 under her leadership, Iceland was the first Western democratic government to ban strip clubs and employers profiting from employees’ nudity. She stated, “The Nordic countries are leading the way on women’s equality, recognizing women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale.”

The move was widely praised as an important way to halt exploitation of workers. The most important gender issue, in Sigurðardóttir’s view is “to fight the pay gap between men and women.”

Sigurðardóttir was previously married to a man and has two sons. She is now married to her own first lady.

Elio Di Rupo

From 2011-2014, Elio Di Rupo served as Prime Minister of Belgium. His political affiliation is Socialist. Born in 1951, he’s the only person in his family to be born in Belgium. Italian by heritage, he is also the first non-ethnically Belgian to serve as head of state.

Like Sigurðardóttir, Di Rupo did not start out a politician, but came to politics after a stint as a chemistry professor.

In 1996, a major scandal broke in which Di Rupo’s fortunes were nearly ruined, but he pulled through unscathed.

Xavier Bettel

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel was born on March 3, 1973. He has served since 2013, succeeding Jean-Claude Juncker, who went on to head the EU. Bettel belongs to the Democratic Party.

Following his re-election in 2018, he came out. Bettel has stated that in Luxembourg “people do not consider the fact of whether someone is gay or not.”

Previously, Bettel was Mayor of Luxembourg City. A lawyer by training, he hosted a weekly TV talk show for four years in the early 2000s.

An interesting footnote: Bettel’s French-Russian mother is a grand-niece of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Leo Eric Varadkar

Born January 18, 1979, Leo Varadkar served as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024. Although he became head of state at age 38, he is the 3rd youngest Taoiseach of Ireland. The youngest was only 31!

When he came out during the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum, he was the first Minister in Irish history to do so. Plus he is the first such Irish leader of Indian heritage. Varadkar is a doctor by training.

His tenure in government has not been without controversy. As Minister for Health, he cut the mental health budget by a third. What’s more, as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport he declared, “I don’t play sport.” He was also part of the government during the Garda whistle-blower scandal, which revealed police corruption. The scandal nearly collapsed his government while he was head of state.

On being gay, Varadkar said, “I’m not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter. It’s just part of who I am, it doesn’t define me.”

Ana Brnabic

In 2017, Ana Brnabic became the first woman and the first openly LGBTQ person to become prime minister of Serbia from 2017 to 2024. She now serves as President of the National Assembly. Born in 1975, she has an MBA and also served as Finance Minister of Serbia.

Notably, she is the second female LGBTQ head of state. In addition, in 2017, she became the first head of state of any Balkan country to attend a Gay Pride march.

This is an updated article, originally published AUGUST 21, 2019