{"id":53618,"date":"2026-04-01T22:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/53618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T22:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T22:49:12","slug":"amsterdam-marks-25-years-of-gay-marriage-with-weddings-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/53618\/","title":{"rendered":"Amsterdam marks 25 years of gay marriage with weddings"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMSTERDAM \u2014 Amsterdam on Wednesday celebrated 25 years since same-sex weddings were legalized, with Rob Jetten, the first openly gay Dutch prime minister, as guest of honor.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands made history on April 1, 2001, when it became the world\u2019s first country to legalize gay marriage.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"TRUE<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\n TRUE LOVE WINS Three couples cut their respective wedding cakes after officially tying the knot during a ceremony in the Netherlands\u2019 capital Amsterdam to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the world’s first legal same-sex marriage, on April 1, 2026. ANP PHOTO VIA AFP\n <\/p>\n

Nearly 36,000 same-sex couples have tied the knot in the quarter-century since, according to the Dutch statistics bureau. Three more made their solemn matrimonial vows shortly after midnight at a ceremony marking the milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 14 years old when, 25 years ago, the first marriages took place here in Amsterdam,\u201d Jetten, a 39-year-old centrist who is engaged to Argentine hockey player Nicolas Keenan, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).<\/p>\n

Get the latest news
\n

\n delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Manila Times newsletters<\/p>\n

By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was one of the first moments that I saw on television that it is possible, even as a young [gay boy back then], to be yourself and to love whoever you want to love,\u201d said the premier, who was elected last October.<\/p>\n

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who officiated the three marriages, hailed Jetten\u2019s presence at the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we had a conservative government for a couple of years, and there was no good news for gay rights,\u201d said Halsema, who is from the Green party.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we have a gay prime minister who is very self-aware and proud. And I think for young gay people it\u2019s a great example,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Eelke de Jong, 45, and Elton Dos Santos Fiame, 39, were among the three couples wedded by Halsema.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the milestone to celebrate a big accomplishment from 25 years ago of what happened. And we were just too excited to be a part of it,\u201d Dos Santos Fiame told AFP.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years on, several dozen countries have followed the Dutch in recognizing gay marriage.<\/p>\n

While a step forward, more progress needs to be made, Halsema argued. \u201cSo we\u2019re celebrating, and we\u2019re also protesting a little bit today.\u201d AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AMSTERDAM \u2014 Amsterdam on Wednesday celebrated 25 years since same-sex weddings were legalized, with Rob Jetten, the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[22428,199,29159,29652,29395,200,1381,1767,4512,29653],"class_list":["post-53618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-22428","tag-amsterdam","tag-gay","tag-marks","tag-marriage","tag-netherlands","tag-of","tag-weddings","tag-with","tag-years"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116331896383836800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}