Graça Maria da Fonseca Caetano Gonçalves (born 13 August 1971) is a Portuguese politician who served as

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizatio ...

in the government of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

António Costa . Fonseca graduated with a law degree from the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

, has a master's degree in economics from the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

, and obtained a PhD in sociology from

ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa is a Portuguese public tertiary education institution. It is located in the city centre of Lisbon, in Cidade Universitária, adjoining the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS) and Institute of Geogr ...

. From 26 November 2015 to 15 October 2018, Fonseca served as Secretary of State Assistant and of Administrative Modernisation. When she

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

publicly, in an interview to newspaper ''

Diário de Notícias ''Diário de Notícias'' () is a Portuguese daily newspaper published in Lisbon, Portugal. Established since 1864, the paper is considered a newspaper of record for Portugal. History and profile ''Diário de Notícias'' was first published in ...

'' in 2017, she was the first gay member of a government cabinet ever to disclose their sexual orientation in Portugal. Since taking office as Minister of Culture in 2018, she is the first openly gay Portuguese government minister. In July 2020, when asked by a reporter about the pressure cultural workers were facing due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, instead of responding to the question, she said she had to leave for a late-afternoon drink, using an anglicism that some critics considered insensitive. Her response was widely panned by the Portuguese press.

References

1971 births Living people Portuguese politicians Culture ministers of Portugal Women government ministers of Portugal People from Lisbon Lesbian politicians Portuguese LGBT politicians Portuguese lesbians {{Portugal-politician-stub