France made history in January 2024 C.E. when President Emmanuel Macron appointed Gabriel Attal as prime minister — the first openly gay person and the youngest prime minister in the history of the Fifth Republic. At 34 years old, Attal stepped into the second-highest office in the country, a moment that advocates for LGBTQ+ equality called a visible sign of social progress.
At a glance
- Historic appointment: Attal is the first openly gay person named prime minister of France, taking office in January 2024 C.E. at age 34.
- Fifth Republic record: His appointment makes him the youngest person ever to hold the prime minister role under France’s current constitutional framework, established in 1958 C.E.
- LGBTQ+ visibility: Anti-discrimination group SOS Homophobie welcomed the milestone, while noting that meaningful progress will depend on the policies Attal’s government puts in place.
Who is Gabriel Attal?
Attal’s political career moved quickly. He won election to the French National Assembly in 2017 C.E., the same year Macron first won the presidency. He later joined Macron’s centrist La République En Marche! party and served as Minister of National Education and Youth — a role that brought both attention and controversy.
His tenure in education included a ban on abayas, long robes worn by some Muslim women, in French public schools. Attal argued the garments conflicted with France’s principle of secularism. The decision drew criticism from civil liberties advocates and Muslim communities who saw it as discriminatory, and it remains a contested part of his record.
Attal was outed on social media by a former classmate while serving in government. He later addressed it publicly in measured terms, acknowledging the privilege that came with his platform. “I think about the millions of French people who live with this but who aren’t famous and have less support and privilege than I do,” he said in a 2023 C.E. interview about homophobia in public life.
What the milestone means
The symbolism was not lost on French LGBTQ+ organizations. “We are happy that being homosexual or gay today isn’t an obstacle to serving in the highest levels of power,” SOS Homophobie said in a statement posted to social media. “Society is progressing and this visibility shows that we are moving in the right direction.”
The group also made clear that visibility alone is not enough. What matters, they wrote, are the concrete actions a government takes — particularly on anti-LGBTQ+ violence and equal rights legislation.
France has seen steady if uneven progress on LGBTQ+ rights over the past three decades, legalizing same-sex civil unions in 1999 C.E. and same-sex marriage in 2013 C.E. Attal’s appointment adds to that arc — though advocates are right to distinguish between a symbolic milestone and a policy record.
Context: a government in transition
Attal took office the day after former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne resigned. Borne had faced sustained opposition — first over the government’s push to raise the retirement age, which triggered some of France’s largest strikes in years, and later over a restrictive immigration law that deepened divisions within Macron’s coalition.
Macron tasked Attal with pursuing what the president described as a plan for civic and economic renewal. How Attal uses that mandate — and whether LGBTQ+ protections feature in it — will shape his legacy far more than the historic nature of his appointment alone.
It is also worth acknowledging that Attal’s rise has not been without critics on the left, who point to his abaya ban and other positions as evidence that his politics do not always align with the interests of marginalized communities. A trailblazing appointment and a complicated record can coexist — and often do.
Why it matters beyond France
Globally, the number of openly LGBTQ+ leaders reaching the highest levels of government remains small. Attal joins a short list that includes former Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. Each appointment has expanded what feels possible for LGBTQ+ people in countries where social acceptance is still unevenly distributed — and in countries where it is far more precarious.
Visibility at the top does not automatically translate to safety or equality at the bottom. But it shifts the cultural imagination of what leadership looks like — and that shift, over time, matters.
Read more
For more on this story, see: LGBTQ Nation
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Marie-Louise Eta becomes the first female head coach in men’s top-flight European football
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- The Good News for Humankind archive on France
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