Green Party Minister Roderic O’Gorman married his long-term partner, Ray Healy, in a private wedding ceremony over the weekend of August 19-20.

The couple was married after a two-year engagement beginning in September 2021. While few details have been shared about their ceremony, the wedding guest list included a small group of close friends and took place during the Dáil’s summer recess.

Only a few ministers have been married while in office, including Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who married her husband in 2017. The wedding between O’Gorman and his husband marks the first-ever same-sex marriage of a minister while holding office in the Irish government

The Green Party Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was involved with the campaign for marriage equality back in 2015. He also worked closely on civil partnership legislation in 2007.

More recently, O’Gorman has been a leading voice calling for better transgender healthcare in Ireland and the incorporation of LGBTQ+-inclusive education in primary and secondary school curriculums to provide an increased understanding of diversity within our society.

 

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Furthermore, Minister O’Gorman has advocated for hate crime legislation and shared his concern for young people within the LGBTQ+ community who are “at the receiving end of an unacceptably high level of abuse and violence”. Unfortunately, O’Gorman was himself publicly subjected to hate speech earlier this year when a far-right protestor interrupted a live RTÉ broadcast making homophobic remarks.

O’Gorman’s husband, Dr Healy, is an academic doctor who works with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland. He is also a qualified registered general nurse.

Government colleague and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was not a guest at the wedding, but he offered his best wishes to the couple, sharing: “Congratulations to Roderic and Ray on their wedding. I am delighted for them both and hope they had a great day of celebration with family and friends. Wishing them very many happy years of married life together.”