France’s new prime minister twice voted against gay rights and critics won’t let him forget it

Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Critics have found a skeleton in the closet almost as soon as Michel Barnier was named France’s new prime minister. Back in 1981, when he was a 30-year-old lawmaker, Barnier was among more than 150 conservatives in the National Assembly who voted against a law that decriminalized young homosexuals. That history loomed in the background when the 73-year-old Barnier took over on Thursday from his predecessor, Gabriel Attal, France’s first openly gay prime minister. In the National Assembly archives, a French researcher found that Barnier also voted against progress on gay rights a year earlier, in April 1980.