The News Minute| November 7, 2014| 12.30 pm IST
Edgars Rinkevics, Latvia’s Foreign Minister tweeted on Thursday that he is gay. And no, his account wasn’t hacked.
Latvin media confirmed that the Minister’s account wasn’t hacked. Rinkevics tweeted :
I proudly announce I'am gay... Good luck all of you...
— Edgars Rinkēvičs (@edgarsrinkevics) November 6, 2014Latvia is one of the few countries in the European Union with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Reports say that the country even advanced a bill which banned sex education curriculum from teaching that same sex stories are equal to regular ones.
Washington Post says the minister's stand has given gay rights advocates a prominent voice in post-Soviet Eastern Europe. "The region — where openly gay public figures are a rarity — has significantly lagged behind the United States and Western Europe in its acceptance of same-sex relationships," says the report.
Amidst this, Rinkevics statement is something the international community is eagerly observing.