The White House omitted naming the husband of Luxembourg’s Prime Minister when it posted a photo of the partners of NATO leaders to it’s Facebook page.
The photo of architect Gauthier Destenay, who is married to Luxembourg’s PM Xavier Bettel made headlines around this world this week.
When the picture by photographer Andrea Hanks was first posted the caption listed everyone except Destenay.
“First Lady Melania Trump poses with Belgium’s Queen Mathilde, center, and other spouses of Nato leaders: First Lady Emine Erdoğan of Turkey; Iceland’s Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir; the First Lady of France Brigitte Trogneux; First Lady Melania Trump; Slovenia’s Mojca Stropnik; Bulgaria’s Desislava Radeva; Belgium’s Amélie Derbaudrenghien, and Norway’s Ingrid Schulerud, during their visit Thursday 25 May 2917 [sic], at the Royal Palace in Brussels.” the original caption read.
People were quick to ask why the only gay spouse had been missed out, and hundreds of people commented on the error. After considerable time the photo’s caption was amended. They also pulled the date back 900 years.
Destenay and Bettel had a civil union in 2010 and married in May 2015, a few months after Luxembourg’s marriage reforms were introduced.
Bettel is the world’s third gay head of state, following in the footsteps of Iceland’s Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Belgium’s former Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
Currently Bettel is the only world leader who is known to be gay, but that could change soon with Leo Varadkar tipped to be the next Taoiseach of Ireland.
