Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel has became the first leader in the European Union to marry a same-sex partner while in office.
Mr Bettel (42), Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel posed with his partner, Belgian Gauthier Destenay, after their wedding ceremony at Luxembourg’s city hall,
Mr Bettel took advantage of new laws in the Grand Duchy to tie the knot at Luxembourg city's town hall with long-term boyfriend Mr Destenay, an architect. "I have just one life, and I don't want to hide my life," Mr Bettel told the Los Angeles Times in August last year, when he revealed his engagement to Mr Destenay. Mr Bettel has never hidden his homosexuality in the mostly Catholic nation; the couple attended the marriage of Luxembourg's hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume to Stephanie de Lannoy in 2012. The prime minister's Twitter page still shows a picture of Mr Bettel and Mr Destenay side-by-side at the royal wedding.
Mr Bettel, who studied law, was the mayor of the city of Luxembourg before he took up his present role in 2013, replacing current European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker. – (Bloomberg)