Irish politician Leo Varadkar was BOTD in 1979. Born in Dublin to an Irish mother and Indian father, he studied medicine at Trinity College, where he became involved in student politics. After working as a general practitioner for several years, he became a local body councillor, winning election to the Dáil (Irish parliament) in 2007, aged just 27. In 2011, he became minister for transport, tourism and sport, leading initiatives to boost international tourism to Ireland. Promoted to minister for health, he made headlines in 2015 by announcing he was gay during a radio interview, and declaring his support for the Irish same-sex marriage campaign. As minister for social protection, he pursued controversial campaigns to prosecute and publicly shame people convicted of benefit fraud. In 2017, he won his party’s leadership election, becoming Ireland’s first openly gay and ethnic minority Taoiseach (prime minister). Adopting a centre-right political position, he promoted tax cuts, restrictions in social welfare, international investment in Ireland and free trade agreements. He became a prominent critic of Britain’s proposed withdrawal from the European Union, drawing attention to the potential corrosion of the Good Friday peace agreement between the Republic and Northern Ireland. He won praise for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was re-elected as Taoiseach in 2022, before stepping down and retiring from politics in 2024. He has been in a relationship with Matthew Barrett since 2015.