Same-sex spouse of Luxembourg's Prime Minister poses with other spouses of world leaders in Brussels photo op
Monday, May 29, 2017
On Thursday, spouses of world leaders posed for a photo op at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium. Gauthier Destenay, husband of Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, was included in the op.
Also included in the photo op were the US First Lady Melania Trump; Brigitte Macron of France; Emine Erdoğan of Turkey; Queen Mathilde of Belgium; Ingrid Schulerud, wife of NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg; Desislava Radeva of Bulgaria; Amelie Derbaudrenghien of Belgium; Mojca Stropnik of Slovenia; and Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir of Iceland. Destenay, Stropnik, and Baldvinsdottir stood on the back row of the op, while the remaining stood on the front.
Xavier Bettel and Gauthier Destenay were in the civil partnership before Bettel became Luxembourg's prime minister in 2013. The couple have been married since 2015, the year when their country legalized same-sex marriage.
Former Prime Ministers Elio Di Rupo of Belgium and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir of Iceland were openly gay when they served office in their respective countries.
The world leaders attended a NATO conference in Brussels on the week of May 22.
Sources
- "First lady Melania Trump ventures to NATO dinner with gay first spouse" — AOL, May 26, 2017
- Jenna Amatulli. "Luxembourg's 'First Gentleman' Gloriously Photographed with Partners of World Leaders" — The Huffington Post, May 26, 2017
- AJ Willingham. "First lady Melania Trump ventures to NATO dinner with gay first spouse" — CNN, May 26, 2017