Luxembourg PM marries his same-sex partner
Image: Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (right) has married Gauthier Destenay (left), a Belgian architect.
THE prime minister of Luxembourg has become one of the first national leaders in the world to marry their same-sex partner.
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel married Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect, at a ceremony in the capital Luxembourg City on Friday.
“Thank you to all Luxembourgers,” Bettel said to a crowd of well-wishers at the city’s town hall, reported Al Jazeera.
Earlier, the PM talked about being gay to Belgian broadcaster RBTF.
“I could have hidden it or repressed it and been unhappy my whole life,” he said.
“I could have had relations with someone of the other sex while having homosexual relations in secret.
“But I told myself that if you want to be a politician and be honest in politics, you have to be honest with yourself and accept that you are who you are.”
The ceremony was attended by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel who was reported as saying his “mate’s wedding” was a big moment.
The landlocked country in northern Europe is only slightly bigger than the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) but punches above its weight with one of the world’s highest levels of GDP as well as serving as a home for many of the key European Union (EU) institutions.
Luxembourg legalised same-sex marriage last year.
Bettel is the first EU leader to marry a same-sex partner while in office.
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir of Iceland – which is not part of the EU – was the first openly-gay head of government to marry in 2010 after becoming the world’s first openly-gay leader a year earlier.
Closer to home, Andrew Barr became the first openly-gay Australian head of a state or territory government on his appointment as Chief Minister of the ACT late last year.
The first couple of Luxembourg will not be going on honeymoon just yet, it is reported, as the Prime Minister has to attend an economic forum in Kazakhstan.
So What
Congratulations to the happy married couple!
Australia still backward sometime in 1915 as per usual!
Congratulations to you both.
Randal
Congratulations & Good Luck !! xxx :-)
Eamon Gilligan
Awesome! John-Richard check it out :)
Congratulations
Aah…civilization..
I wonder what natural disaster will be attributed to this…
Can we just call it a marriage, and congratulations to the couple
Why can’t they just say “partner”
It is called SPOUSE you idiot!
Tony Abbott must be petrified now, given he was scared of us before. What an arsehole!
Tony Abbott is a gutless cunt!
Awesome!!
Awesome. Congrats to the couple.
Excellent!!
It’s a shame Abbott can’t be honest and admit he is a homophobic arsehole.
Is he with a gay sister and was great support to a friend that was going through a change from a man to a woman. She publicly stated this
Fair call. He could just admit he’s an arsehole then.
Having a gay sister does not preclude homophobia…
I’m with you andy
Yeah, that’s a bit like saying you can’t be a misogynist if you have a mother.
It’s like saying someone isn’t racist if they’re white and they have a white sister who’s dating a black guy who they disapprove of because they don’t believe in mixed race marriages. It’s an illogical way of trying to excuse a bigot. Why do people still try to make such illogical excuses for bigotry in 2015?
It’s actually offensive to use the mere existence of a gay person in someone’s family, whose marriage he wouldn’t support, to say that it proves a person isn’t a homophobe. Why do gay people still get used like this?
Abbott takes the view that he doesn’t have anything against gay or transgender people as individuals, but he has the right to judge them for their sex lives and relationships (this is the George Pell school of thinking), and laws should be in place to remind everyone of this. That isn’t acceptance, it’s homophobia.
The ‘but Abbott’s sister is gay so that means he can’t be a homophobe’ gets used by Liberal trolls so often, it just proves how entrenched homophobia is. If you have a gay sister, are incapable of giving her relationships the same respect you’d give to anyone else’s, but don’t ostracise her from your life completely, that’s seen as being praise-worthy by these people.
The question isn’t how much of a homophobe Abbott is (because he certainly is one), the problem is, why do so many people who pretend they’re for equality still defend him? The Lib Party certainly employs a lot of gay people – and $ buys a lot of silence.
Star Observer it was not a “same-sex wedding” it was just a wedding :)