European Nation Luxembourg Gets Gay Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister

Xavier Bettel has become Luxembourg’s first openly gay Prime Minister and Europe’s third openly gay head of government. While he was elected as Luxembourg’s Prime Minister on 4 December, 2013, Etienne Schneider, who is also openly gay, was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy.

With two openly gay ministers heading the government, Luxembourg is all set to get its same-sex marriage status soon. The government led by Xavier also plans to make necessary reforms from same sex marriage to problems of “unemployment, housing and finance” in the country.

The forty year old Prime Minister is in relationship with Destenay Gauthier. Gauthier has moved in with Bettel at the Prime Minister’s residence recently. Talking about his sexuality and political career, Bettel told BuzzFeed, “My partner is a bit scared. I try to be at home most nights as we’re a team but the obligations [of being Prime Minister] mean I will have to go abroad a lot. I asked him the day after the election whether it was OK to form a government and he supported me. If he had said no I would have to think whether I could accept it or not – I didn’t want to break up a relationship!”

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the former Prime Minister of Iceland was the first openly gay head of state of any European country. In 2011, Elio Di Rupo, the current Prime Minister of Belgium, became the second head of state of Europe to be openly gay. As Luxembourg celebrates its first gay Prime Minister, not just Europe but the entire world anxiously awaits the country’s progress and change in the next five years.

Follow the Prime Minister on twitter at https://twitter.com/Xavier_Bettel