This story is from September 25, 2006

Is Germany ready for a gay chancellor?

Mark Landler / Agencies / Sep 25, 2006, 22:50 IST

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Charming, sociable and openly gay, Klaus Wowereit is the newest star in the German political firmament.

BERLIN: Fresh from his never-in-doubt re-election as Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit was soaking up the vibe at Popkomm, a music-industry trade show where the conventioneers favour fishnet stockings and motorcycle boots. In short: a typical Berlin scene.
It is Wowereit's kind of scene, too, though the sunny, 52-year-old mayor was trying hard to look statesmanlike as he toured the floor with a scrum of television cameras.
Famous for once being photographed at a party sipping Champagne from an actress's red pump, Wowereit politely declined the bubbly offered by the organisers, drinking water instead.
Only when he spied a bank of headphones did the mayor break into a grin. Strapping on a pair, he bobbed his head to a new release by the American hip-hopper Lupe Fiasco.

Charming, sociable and openly gay, Klaus Wowereit is the newest star in the German political firmament. It is a firmament short on stars.
After his victory, the mass-market newspaper Bild ran a front-page headline asking, "Will Wowi Be the First Gay Chancellor?" "Why not?" Wowereit said in an interview this week, when asked whether Germans were ready for a homosexual leader.
"This doesn't have to do with a particular person, however," he added. "It's an abstract question. One could also ask: can Germany have a female chancellor? We've seen that, yes, we can."

The election of Angela Merkel, a brainy physicist-turned-politician, has scrambled the assumptions about what is possible in German politics. "I believe I have support nationally because of my policies," he said, noting that Berlin is a microcosm of Germany as a whole.
NYT news service

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