Amsterdam celebrates 25 years since the world’s first same-sex weddings

FILE -From left, Peter Wittebrood-Lemke, Frank Wittebrood, Ton Jansen, Louis Rogmans, Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus, the pairs who were among four couples to get married under the world's first law allowing same-sex marriages with equal rights. cut the wedding cake after exchanging vows at Amsterdam's City Hall early April 1, 2001. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File) 2026-04-01T05:02:00Z AMSTERDAM (AP) — The Dutch capital marked the 25th anniversary of the world’s first gay marriages with three same-sex couples tying the knot at City Hall early Wednesday.

The celebration, conducted by Mayor Femke Halsema just after midnight, came a quarter of a century after one of her predecessors, Job Cohen, married four couples in a landmark ceremony for LGBTQ+ rights that paved the way for similar legislation in nearly 40 countries around the world.

Same-sex weddings are commonplace now in the Netherlands.

Since 2001, more than 36,000 same-sex couples have married, according to the country’s official statistics office.

Prime Minister Rob Jetten , the country’s first openly gay leader, is planning to soon marry his partner Nicolás Keenan, an Argentine field hockey star who won a bronze medal with his country’s team at the 2024 Paris Olympics. “As a prime minister, I’m very proud that we celebrate 25 years of universal marriage here in the Netherlands,’’ Jetten told The Associated Press at the overnight ceremony. ‘’Also for me personally, I can still remember when I was 14 years old watching TV, seeing the first couples getting married here in Amsterdam.

That was also very inspiring and emancipating for me, personally, as it has been for so many others,’’ he said.

The U.S.

Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015, after many states had already done so.

One study last year estimated that there are more than 800,000 same-sex married couples in the U.S.

Amy Quinn and her wife, Heather Jensen, were among the first to be married in New Jersey when it became recognized there in 2013.

Quinn said it was important because they were considering having a child and their lawyer told them it would help if they were married because that would mean both women could have their names on the birth certificate, sign school records and have hospital visitation rights. “It’s shocking to me in terms of really how recently we got it,” said Quinn, the deputy mayor of Asbury Park, New Jersey.

The U.S.-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has i

原文链接: AP News