Gay son of Indian immigrant likely to be Ireland's next leader
by Kara Fox, CNN
Updated 1119 GMT (1919 HKT) May 30, 2017
印度移民的同志儿子 将可能成为爱尔兰的下任首相
CNN Kara Fox 报导
2017年五月三十日
http://imgur.com/O2qLnbj
He was 22 when he entered Irish politics. At 27, he was elected to
parliament. At 36, he publicly came out as gay. And now, at 38, Leo Varadkar,
the son of an Indian immigrant father and an Irish mother, appears on course
to become Ireland's next prime minister.
22岁时，他投入爱尔兰政坛。27岁时，他选上国会议员。36岁时，他向全世界公开他的同
志身份。如今，38岁了，这位叫做里欧法拉克（Leo Varadkar）的印度移民之子，父亲是
印度人，母亲是爱尔兰人，正堂堂走向爱尔兰的首相之位。
As Ireland prepared to cast a historic vote that legalized same sex marriage
in 2015, Varadkar came out publicly on Irish national radio.
2015年，正当爱尔兰准备投下历史的一票让同性婚姻合法化，法拉克在爱尔兰国家电台公
开出柜了。
"It's not something that defines me. 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, it is part of my character I suppose," the
fiercely private politician said speaking on RTE 1.
“性向并不能定义我是谁。我是一名政治人物，但我身上没有贴著印度移民之子的标签、
医师从政的标签、或同志身份的标签。那些身份都只是我这个人其中的一个面向而已，这
些面向并不能定义我是谁，即便这些面向的确都是我人格的一部分。”这位私生活极度低
调的政治人物在爱尔兰RTE1电台上说著。
Although Varadkar has tried to steer attention away from his sexuality to his
politics, for a country that is increasingly trying to focus on a more
liberal European identity and shake off the hangover of religious involvement
in politics, a coming-out speech like Varadkar's, whatever its tone, is still
ground-breaking.
虽然法拉克试图将公众的注意力从他的性向转移到他的政治表现，也虽然爱尔兰已经不断
努力让自己成为一个更自由派的欧洲国家，极力摆脱过去政教合一的包袱，法拉克的出柜
演说对爱尔兰政坛而言仍是石破天惊，不管他的措辞是不是委婉。
Homosexuality was only decriminalized in Ireland in 1993. In 2015, Ireland
passed the Marriage Equality Bill, allowing same-sex couples to marry.
同性恋在爱尔兰直到1993年才改判为无罪。而2015年，爱尔兰便已通过婚姻平权法案，让
同性伴侣可以结婚。
Senator David Norris, 73, the first Irish politician to publicly come out as
gay told CNN that he understands why Varadkar wants to focus on policies and
not his personal life. Speaking of his own experience, Norris said, "I never
made a big deal out of it, because I didn't want to be treated as a 'freak'.
I didn't want to be stuck just with issues of sexuality."
现年73岁的参议员大卫诺瑞斯是爱尔兰第一位公开出柜的同志政治人物，他跟CNN说他懂
为何法拉克希望大家把焦点摆在他的政策，而不是他的私生活。诺瑞斯以自己的个人经验
为例，说：“我从来就不想在我的性倾向上面大作文章，因为我不想被大家当‘怪物’对
待。我不希望被定位成只能讨论性方面的议题。”
"What Varadkar does in bed is irrelevant," Norris said. But he also noted
that if Varadkar becomes Ireland's next prime minister or taoiseach, it would
signal another stride forward for equality rights in Ireland.
“法拉克要在他的床上做什么事，跟大家一点关系都没有。”但诺瑞斯也说，如果法拉克
成为爱尔兰的下任首相，这对爱尔兰的平权运动来说，将是向前跃进的一大步。
"For people of my generation, there were no role models at all. Now to be
able to have a young, able, good-looking gay man as prime minister of the
country, it says to young people, 'you can be anything you want, your
sexuality doesn't matter,'" he said.
“我这一代里，没有什么典范的人物。然而现在，如果爱尔兰能有这么一位年轻、能干、
英俊帅气的男同志来当我们的首相，这将会为年轻世代带来一个讯息：‘没有什么你做不
到的事，即便你的性向跟别人不一样也没关系。’”诺瑞斯说。
If elected, Varadkar would be one of two openly gay heads of state currently
in office