Luxembourg’s PM Weds Same-sex Partner
LUXEMBOURG, May 18 (UPI) — Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister, became the first serving European Union leader to enter into a same-sex marriage Friday.
Bettel, 42, and Gauthier Destenay, a Belgian architect, married in a private ceremony in Luxembourg’s city hall under a same-sex marriage law which came into effect in January. Both men, wearing ties and dark suits, greeted well-wishers after the ceremony. As they hugged on the city hall steps, Bettel said, “Luxembourg can set an example.”
The tiny and heavily Catholic nation, technically a Grand Duchy, is one of about a dozen EU countries that allow same-sex marriage.
“I could have hidden it or repressed it and been unhappy my whole life. 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 British Broadcasting Corp. reported Bettel said, the night before the wedding.
Among the guests were Prime Ministers Charles Michel of Belgium and Taavi Ropivas of Estonia.
Johanna Sigurdadottir, former Prime minister of Iceland, was the first serving government leader to marry a same-sex partner, in 2009.
