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Loser in Germany's election forced to apologise
Guido Westerwelle and partner, Michael Mronz
'I don't want a gay foreign minister,' says senior German politician
A senior German politician has been forced to apologise after saying of the man tipped to be the country's next foreign minister: "I don't want a gay foreign minister."
Peter Langner, of the centre-left SPD made the remark about openly gay Guido Westerwelle, who is set to lead his liberal FDP into government in coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.
Westerwelle, 47, came out five years ago and lives with his partner Michael Mronz, an event manager who organised the athletic world championship in Berlin this summer. Now they are being proclaimed as Germany's new power couple, with the populist Bild newspaper saying: "His man makes him so strong!" Westerwelle said the support of 42-year-old Mronz was a "vital factor" for him during the election campaign.
Langner, who is the treasurer of the city of Duisburg, saw the SPD heavily defeated in Sunday's election and made the offending remark when it became apparent that Westerwelle was likely to be offered the post after the FPD won 15% of the vote.
Westerwelle's sexuality has not been an election issue and Langner's remark was considered grossly insensitive in view of the Nazi's persecution and murder of thousands of homosexuals.
Gay rights organisations were quick to condemn him and he tried to excuse himself by saying the remark was made "in a private circle", adding: "It was inconsiderate coming immediately after the results of the election were posted and I do not have any prejudices towards any homosexual person. I am a tolerant man."
Although Westerwelle is not regarded as a gay rights activist, he has said that his career may be "encouraging for some young gays". He has been known to be gay since 2004, when he brought Mronz to Angela Merkel's 50th birthday party.
Klaus Jetz, the head of Germany's Lesbian and Gay Association said: "We think it's awesome that it has become so normal that an openly gay man becomes foreign minister. It's important that as foreign minister he will openly talk about human rights and the persecution of gays and lesbians in other countries."
"I can only tell all young gays and lesbians to not be disheartened, if not everything goes their way," Westerwelle told the Berlin gay magazine Siegessaeule this month. "This society is changing for the good in the direction of tolerance and respect...though slower than I would wish."
