Klaus Wowereit
“Proud of what my coming out has done for others”
Klaus Wowereit is happy about his public commitment 20 years ago.
© Matthias Wehnert / shutterstock.com
Klaus Wowereit came out as homosexual in 2001. To this day, he proudly looks back on his coming out.
Klaus Wowereit (67), former governing mayor of Berlin, is still happy about coming out 20 years ago: “I think it was right to go on the offensive and I’m also a little proud of what it was for has caused others “, explains Wowereit in the Wednesday edition of the” Tagesspiegel “.
With the sentence “I’m gay – and that’s a good thing”, the then SPD top candidate for the office of Governing Mayor of Berlin in 2001 confessed to his sexuality. The sentence became legendary and Wowereit was elected into office a short time later.
He hadn’t formulated the sentence beforehand. “It came spontaneously,” explains Wowereit now in the “Tagesspiegel” interview. The coming-out was actually prepared by him, even if some advisors advised against it, says Wowereit. As a teenager, however, it was inconceivable for him that “in the end he would come out in this way in front of millions of people and become famous with my outing”.