Xavier
Bettel and his partner, Gauthier Destenay, among first gay men to wed in mostly
Catholic Grand Duchy
The Guardian, Damien Gayle, Friday 15 May 2015
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| Xavier Bettel Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images |
Luxembourg’s
prime minister is to become the first European Union leader – and only the
second worldwide leader – to marry someone of the same sex.
Xavier
Bettel, 42, and his partner, Gauthier Destenay, an architect from Belgium, are
among the first gay men to wed in the mostly Catholic Grand Duchy since it
became the latest EU state to extend full rights to same-sex couples.
Their union
comes five years after Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the then prime minister of
Iceland, became the first serving leader in the world to marry a same-sex
partner.
Bettel and
Destenay, who have been civil partners since 2010, were expected to say their
vows in a quiet civil ceremony with friends and family, away from the glare of
publicity.
“It won’t
be a flashy ceremony but the symbolism’s very strong,” said French broadcaster
Stéphane Bern, a friend of Bettel and Destenay. “Everyone’s warm and positive,”
Bern was quoted as saying by the Luxemburger Wort newspaper.
Few details
have emerged about the wedding, which Bettel had aimed to keep private. Press
photographers have been banned.
“He does
not want to put his private life in the public spotlight and he has turned down
requests from the celebrity magazines to cover the event,” a friend told Agence
France-Presse earlier this month.
Bettel, who
is leader of Luxembourg’s centre-right Democratic party, came out publicly as
gay in 2008. But since taking power 18 months ago he has played down the
significance of his sexuality, insisting “what happens at home remains
private”.
His party
won its leading place in a coalition government after promising to be a
modernising force for Luxembourg, with plans to replace religious education in
schools with general ethics classes, and to lower the voting age to 16.
Same-sex
marriage was another key pledge. It 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.
“I said
‘yes’,” Bettel told the Los Angeles Times. “I have just one life and I don’t
want to hide my life.”
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