The Secretary of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, André Moz Caldas, made a point of referring in an interview to the magazine of the University of Lisbon, where he is a guest assistant at the Faculty of Law, his homosexuality and the fact of being married to another man. “I am the first member of the government to be married to a person of the same sex and I do not make public fanfare, but I also do not feel it is just an aspect of my personal life”.
And it is to help combat a prejudice that still exists – “I don’t know why homophobia exists, it is a yoke from which society will be freed, but there is still some way to get there” – who now shares their sexual orientation. André Moz Caldas hopes that his example will show other Portuguese young people that “they are not condemned to ostracism”. “If there is a young man who, by my example, can feel more free to live his sexual orientation openly, I would be very happy.”
In the same interview, the Secretary of State admits that he never felt “victimized” by his sexual orientation, but recognizes that the fact of living in a “progressive social and family context” in Lisbon, made him not have had the negative experiences by which other homosexuals pass. “Those who belong to a minority have to have a great deal of energy to give permanent respect to it,” he says.
André Moz Caldas, master in law and dentistry at the University of Lisbon and former president of the parish council of Alvalade, is the second member of a Portuguese government to reveal his sexual orientation in an interview. Graça Fonseca – now Minister of Culture – also did so, in an interview with Diário de Notícias when she was Secretary of State.
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