Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s newly married gay foreign minister, is an inexperienced “wild card” with an “exuberant personality” that prevents him from being trusted, according to a March 2009 cable that dropped among Wikileaks’ treasure trove of 250,000 supposedly private intelligence communications. So that’s sort of awkward.
While Sec. of State Hillary Clinton believes the United States can recover from the way American operatives around the globe described foreign leaders in messages they thought would never go public, I’m not sure how, exactly, you mitigate saying Westerwelle (seen here with husband Michael Mronz) “had been the single biggest obstacle to the government seeking a bigger increase in German troops for Afghanistan,” and not the opposition Social Democratic Party,” as a February 2010 cable said.
Because that sort of sounds personal!
Westerwelle’s boss, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, wasn’t excluded from the cables’ remarks; she was dubbed a “teflon” politico and described as a “circumspect ally” in the months before the country’s September 2009 elections.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
At least there are no records of the State Department calling Westerwelle a girly man? Because my my, Clinton would have to update that It Gets Better video, and girl is bizzay these days.
alan brickman
No wonder equal rights are taking so long…
adam
so they weren’t a fan of a right-wing gay. Fine with me.
Kamikapse
@adam: What are you talking about?
The FDP isn’t right-wing…
cls
Everything is right=wing when you lean so far left you look like a tower in Pisa.
Westerwelle is a classical liberal: pro-peace, pro-equality of rights, pro-market. He wants more freedom across the board and to some people that is called “right-wing.”
Tallskin
The wikkileaks are most revealing about the US establishment’s view of openly gay politicians in Europe.
The US establishment is revealing an attitude set in the 1950s
Depressing.
As Alan Brickman says, no wonder equality is taking so long in the USA.
I would wager that a difference in religious belief is the explanation for the big disparity in attitudes towards gays between the USA and Europe. Europe atheist. USA fundamentalist.
Who would like to accept my wager?
TripleB
Mmmmmm….perhaps, Tallskin. And I’m not defending religious homophobia, but the atheist governments of the Soviet Union empire (as well as China) sure weren’t/aren’t too gay-friendly.
adam
@Kamikapse: The FDP is essentially libertarian. Libertarianism = right-wing pseudo-populism. Nevermind its and Angela Merkel’s party’s positions on things like nuclear power that are making the Green Party extremely popular in Germany.
As for CLS, ‘classical liberalism’ no longer exists. That’s why it’s called classical liberalism. And I don’t lean very far left at all, but nice of you to presume from one short sentence.
Of course, you’re all just defending him, as well as his continuously-shrinking party because he’s gay.
adam
@cls: Also, from the FDP’s own wiki:
“The FDP strongly supports human rights, civil liberties, and internationalism, but has shifted from the centre to the centre-right over time.”
Yeah, I’M the one who’s got extreme views, you half-wit.
Troy M
Ok… Where is the part that says “because he is gay”? Could Max Simon be reading something into this that simply is not there? Surely, not Queerty.
robert in nyc
Tallskin, you may have a point there.
Westerwelle married? Since when did Germany legalize same-sex marriage? News to me.
Steve
The American Democratic Party is center-left to center-right, depending on the issue. The American two-party system has shifted so far to the right that parties that are more towards the center in the European system are easily called left. They wouldn’t know what to do with truly left parties, e.g. communists.
John (CA)
There’s a reason why the American media always immediately assumes that a Social Democratic, Labour, or Socialist electoral victory anywhere in the world is “bad” for America or might “complicate” that country’s relations with Washington.
This is their attitude regardless of whether the Democrats or Republicans are in power.
Kurt
The FDP sure is right-wing.
They are laps dogs for Big Business, anti-worker, lax on workplace safety and for tax givaways to the rich.
Americans=Rightwingers (John From England)
@TripleB:
You’re full of sh*t. Give me links and proper quotes as to when these areas were atheist. Bull-sh*t. You Americans never travel or leave your country but have this warped perception of other peoples govt.
Communism is an ideology just like your right wing ideology that got all those people from Europe etc leaving because the church of England wanted divorce-quel horror!
Who cares what this party is? No one on this blog is a lefty….you’re all causing trouble and being contrary.
America-you f*cked up and seen as the v right wing nation that you are. Someone like this dude above should’ve been your best mat aa’s he is soooooo pro business but because he is gay….
And tallskin is pretty right wing 100% of the time so come up with other gems please.