Congratulations to Luxembourg’s openly gay Prime Minister Xavier Bettel who this month wed his long term partner Gauthier Destenay.
The Grand Duchy’s same-sex marriage laws only came into effect in January and the first couple wasted no time in announcing their wedding plans.
The couple wed in a very private ceremony with no media allowed but it is understood that a number of prominent European political figures attended the ceremony. Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider is also openly gay.
Born in Luxembourg, Xavier’s father was a wine merchant and his mother a grandniece of the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.
After completing his secondary school studies, he obtained a master’s degree in Public and European Law. He also obtained a DEA in Political Science and Public Law.
He also hosted a TV talk show for some time.
Elected to Luxembourg City’s communal council in 2001, he became Mayor in 2011.
In 2013, Luxembourg’s Democratic Party elected him leader. After that year’s election, Grand Duke Henri asked him to form the next government. He assumed his post as Luxembourg’s Prime Minister on 4 December 2013.
Update 2019
Following Luxembourg’s 2018 election, Xavier Bettel became the first openly gay prime minister in the world re-elected for a second term.
In 2019, he is one of three openly gay world leaders. The others are Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach of Ireland and Ana Brnabić, the Prime Minister of Serbia.
He says that increasingly in Luxembourg “people do not consider the fact of whether someone is gay or not.”
In September 2019, he continued a press conference without the British PM, after Boris Johnson pulled a no show due to an anti-Brexit protest held by British citizens living in Luxembourg.
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