Luxembourg's out prime minister, Xavier Bettel, married his longtime partner, Gauthier Destinay, Friday, making them the world's only openly gay "first couple," to borrow an American term,
Luxembourger Wort is reporting.
It's not every day that Luxembourg City Hall hosts a wedding in which one of the grooms is head of government. Naturally, members of the media joined about 250 others who had gathered to cheer on the soon-to-be newlyweds as they arrived, each wearing simple, elegant dark blue suits, crisp white shirts, and pocketed kerchiefs with slim blue ties.
It was
widely speculated two weeks ago that the prime minister would marry his beau last Wednesday. As it turned out, those rumors were off by two days. Luxembourg City's mayor, who has known Bettel since he was 9 years old, officiated.
In an interview with the
Los Angeles Times last year, Bettel indicated that authenticity is important to him, adding that he is a prime minister for all the people.
"I have just one life, and I don't want to hide my life," Bettel told the Times. "But I was not the 'gay candidate.' ... People didn't vote for me because I'm gay or I'm straight."
This year Luxembourg became the 17th nation to enact marriage equality. Bettel is only the second head of government worldwide to marry a same-sex partner while in office, the first being Iceland Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, who wed Jonina Leosdottir in 2010 by changing their civil union to a marriage when Iceland legalized same-sex marriage. Sigurdardottir left office in 2013.
