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 organiza ...

in the government of

Prime Minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

António Costa António Luís Santos da Costa (; born 17 July 1961) is a Portuguese lawyer and politician who has served as President of the European Council since 2024. He previously served as the 118th prime minister of Portugal from 2015 to 2024 and th ...

. Fonseca graduated with a law degree from the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

, has a master's degree in economics from the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, 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 university ...

, and obtained a PhD in sociology from ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon. Elected Member of Parliament, 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 LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

publicly, in an interview to newspaper ''

Diário de Notícias () is a Portuguese weekly 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 Lisbon on 29 December 1 ...

'' 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, instead of responding to the question, she said she had to leave for a late-afternoon drink, using an

anglicism An anglicism is a word or construction borrowed from English by another language. Due to the global dominance of English in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in other languages. Technology-related English ...

that some critics considered insensitive. Her response was widely panned by the Portuguese press.

References

1971 births Living people Culture ministers of Portugal Women government ministers of Portugal Politicians from Lisbon Portuguese lesbian politicians LGBTQ legislators LGBTQ government ministers {{Portugal-politician-stub