This Wednesday marks exactly 25 years since the first gay marriage was concluded in the Netherlands. For Prime Minister Rob Jetten, as a 14-year-old high school student in Uden, this was confirmation of what he still had doubts about inside: ‘I belong, just like everyone else’.
In the council chamber of Amsterdam, at just after twelve o’clock on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, three same-sex couples were married. Exactly as it was 25 years ago, when the first gay marriages were concluded.
An attentive spectator in Amsterdam was Prime Minister Rob Jetten. De Udenaar is the first openly gay Prime Minister of the Netherlands. ‘If you can be present at a wedding, it is always honorable. And of course especially today. 25 years ago today, same-sex couples were allowed to marry each other for the first time,” Jetten wrote on Instagram.
Equivalence
Jetten still remembers well the impact that the first gay marriage had on him 25 years ago: “Thanks to the couples who preceded me, as a 14-year-old teenager I saw confirmation of what I still doubted inside: I belong, just like everyone else. In my opinion, that equality, even now after 25 years, is the most important thing about universal marriage. The recognition that love between two people simply exists.”
Jetten told the Radio 1 Journaal: “Today we celebrate love together, a milestone for the Netherlands and the world. A tradition in which 10,000 people have now declared their love for each other.”
Better legislation and regulations
The Netherlands was the forerunner in the field of gay acceptance for many years, but our country has now dropped to 13th place on that list. Jetten: “We should not be naive that the emancipation of the LGBTIQ community is over. This means that better legislation and regulations are needed on a number of themes. For example, around the rights of trans people and a better arrangement for surrogacy,” the Prime Minister said on Radio 1 Journaal.
He elaborates on this further on Instagram. “It was not as obvious as that sounds now, here in the Netherlands. The opening of marriage was preceded by a long, bumpy road. We are now increasingly experiencing that this acquired right is apparently not yet a self-evident right, but something that we must protect every day. The best way to deal with this is to do what these couples did today. Give each other the most important place in your life in front of everyone.”
Jetten himself will marry Argentinian hockey player Nicolás Keenan this year in August. The wedding is in Spain.
