Same-sex weddings begin in Luxembourg
The first same-sex couples have married in Luxembourg – and the country’s openly gay Prime Minister will not be far behind.
Luxembourg is the only country in the world that has both a gay Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, and an openly gay Deputy Prime Minister, Etienne Schneider.
The small European country – which has a population of just 550,000 – passed equal marriage by a landslide vote of 56-4 in June, and the law came into effect yesterday with remarkably little backlash.
Jean Paul Olinger and Henri Huber, who were the first couple to enter a domestic partnership in 2004, made history again as the first same-sex couple to wed.
The pair were married in Differdange town hall by mayor Roberto Traversini, according to Luxemberger Wort.
PM Xavier Bettel might not be far behind – as he plans to marry his partner Gauthier Destenay “soon”.
Mr Bettel said in August: “He asked me, and I said yes. I can’t give you the date, because it’s not official yet.”
Luxembourg follows just days behind Scotland, where the first weddings took place shortly after midnight on December 31.
In the US, Florida is to begin same-sex weddings next week, when a ruling striking down the state’s marriage ban comes into effect.
