Leo Varadkar

Serving his first term as Ireland’s Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020 and his second starting in 2022, Leo Varadkar is the fourth out LGBTQ+ person in modern history to serve as a head of government, as well as the youngest Irish Taoiseach in history and its first prime minister of Asian descent. Varadkar first ran for office as a medical student in 1999, coming shy in his bid for local office. He was later co-opted to fill a vacancy on Fingal County Council in 2003 and won election to the position in 2004. Varadkar won election as a Fine Gael member of Dáil Éireann in the 2007 election and soon was elevated to a series of leadership roles in the opposition front bench. When Fine Gael formed a governing coalition in 2011, Varadkar became minister for transport, tourism and spot, and later served as minister for health and minister for social protection. He replaced Enda Kenny as leader of Fine Gael in 2017, paving way for his election as Taoiseach. In office he championed a nationwide referendum modernizing Ireland’s abortion laws, which overwhelmingly passed in 2018. Currently Varadkar serves as Ireland’s Tánaiste, the deputy head of government.