Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel married his partner Gauthier Destenay on Friday, becoming the first European Union leader to enter a gay marriage.
Teri Schultz tells our Newscast unit that Bettel becomes the second world leader to do so. Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir married her partner five years ago.
The interesting part about this development is that gay marriage is a relatively new thing in Luxembourg. As The Guardian reports, Bettel's party won a prominent spot in the ruling coalition after campaigning for same-sex marriage
"[Same-sex marriage] was previously knocked down in 2007 by the then ruling Christian People's party, but a poll in 2013 found 83% of Luxembourgers supported a change in the law."Little is known about Destenay, who works for the Belgian-Luxembourger architecture firm A3. He has appeared alongside Bettel at a number of official events, including the royal wedding of Prince Guillaume and Princess Stéphanie in 2012. "What is known is that it was Destenay who proposed, reportedly asking for Bettel's hand just weeks after Luxembourg's parliament last July became the ninth EU legislature to lift a ban on gay marriages."
"Former Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo was the EU's first openly gay national leader. "The Luxembourg newly-weds are not expected to go away on a honeymoon, as the PM has to attend an economic forum in Kazakhstan, according to AFP news agency. "A friend of the couple told the French news agency Mr Bettel was keen to keep his private life out of the public spotlight."
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
