Raphaël Gérard (born 17 October 1968) is a French politician of La République En Marche (LREM) who has been a member of the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

since 2017, where he represents the 4th constituency of Charente-Maritime.

Early life and education

In 1992, Gérard obtained his diploma in Art History at the École du Louvre, with a specialty in ancient and Christian iconography, then a year later in Museology. In 2002, he took over the management of the Musée de Montmartre in Paris, where he produced several major exhibitions, such as a first retrospective devoted to

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen Theophilus is a male given name with a range of alternative spellings. Its origin is the Greek word Θεόφιλος from θεός (God) and φιλία (love or affection) can be translated as "Love of God" or "Friend of God", i.e., it is a theoph ...

in 2005. In 2006, he joined the

LVMH LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (), commonly known as LVMH, is a French holding multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris. The company was formed in 1987 through the merger of fashion house ...

group and the heritage department of the Louis Vuitton trunk maker where he was responsible for international exhibitions. In 2012, Gérard moved to the south of Charente-Maritime, in

Lonzac Lonzac () is a commune in the Charente-Maritime department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. Population See also * Communes of the Charente-Maritime department The following is a list of the 463 communes of the Cha ...

, and became responsible for the heritage and cultural activities of Hennessy.

Member of the National Assembly

On 18 June 2017, Gérard was elected in the 15th constituency of the Nord by obtaining 51.29% of votes in the second round against the LR 's candidat. In the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

, Gérard serves on the Commission for Cultural Affairs and Education. In addition to his committee assignments, he chairs the Heritage Study group and the France-

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Friendship Group. He is also Vice-Président of the Discrimination and LGBT-phobias worldwide's Study group.

Political positions

In July 2019, Gérard voted in favor of the French ratification of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Personal life

Gérard is married. On 20 June 2018, on the occasion of the presentation of his report on the fight against anti-

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

discrimination in Overseas, came out publicly as gay. On 12 March 2020, Gérard tested positive for

Covid-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 14 March 2020, he was placed in intensive care.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerard, Raphael 1968 births Living people Deputies of the 15th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic La République En Marche! politicians Gay politicians LGBT legislators in France Deputies of the 16th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic