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Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel marries same-sex partner

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is the first European Union leader — and only the second leader worldwide — to marry a same-sex partner.
Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, right, puts his hand around the shoulder of his partner Gauthier Destenay after their marriage at the town hall in Luxembourg, on May 15, 2015. (Photo by Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)
Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, right, puts his hand around the shoulder of his partner Gauthier Destenay after their marriage at the town hall in Luxembourg, on May 15, 2015.
By Emma Margolin, Emma Margolin

Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and longtime partner Gauthier Destenay tied the knot on Friday, making Bettel the first European Union leader — and only the second leader worldwide — to marry a same-sex partner.

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The predominantly Catholic country became the latest in the EU to legalize marriage for same-sex couples at the beginning of the year, joining Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Ireland may be next, as voters there prepare to take part in a referendum next Friday on whether to give gay and lesbian couples the right to wed.

Only one other serving head of government has ever married a same-sex partner. In 2010, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, then the prime minister of Iceland, married her longtime partner, Jónína Leósdóttir.