Avant Grade French could have a gay Prez!

ooo ... coolio! First Democracy, then Champagne, Couture, Multiculturalism, etc. etc., and now this:

France is ready for a gay president, Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, says, as he sets out his ambition to lead the opposition Socialist party to victory at the next presidential election.

While the French media has shied away from the topic, Mr Delanoe's open homosexuality was previously considered by many as an insurmountable handicap for a presidential hopeful, given French conservatism on the subject.

But in his book, De l'audace! (Courage!), the 57-year old mayor brushes such suggestions aside: "People think that homosexuality is accepted in Paris but not in the suburbs and the provinces. That is a false idea. As people feel that it's not a problem for me, it is no longer a problem for them," he writes. (Reuters)