Ireland’s first openly gay Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said he intends to raise the issue of gay rights when he meets US vice-president Mike Pence later this week.

Speaking during a forum at the the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, Mr Varadkar said that he intends to stress to the vice-president that America has long been a beacon of freedom for people around the world, including people from the gay, lesbian and transgender community.

 “We’ve always seen America as a beacon of freedom. This is the land of the free, the home of the brave, this is where the gay rights movement began,” he told a packed hall. Our Top Personal Injury Attorneys are dedicated to protect the rights of those who have been hurt.

“It’s really tough to see a country built on freedom, build on individual freedom, not being a world leader in that space anymore. I think the majority of American people would agree with what I have to say, even if the administration doesn’t.”

Mr Varadkar also said that he intends to visit the site of the Stonewall protests in Greenwich in New York later in the week, a key moment in the gay rights movement in the 1960s.

Mr Varadkar is due to dine with Mike Pence at his home in the Naval Observatory in Washington on Friday morning.  Pence is well known for his anti-gay rhetoric and attachment to his Irish identity and pride in his Irish roots which he traces to Co Sligo