April 1st Marks Anniversary of World's First Married Lesbian Couple

Yesterday, Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus, from the Netherlands, celebrated their 10 year anniversary. On April 1, 2001 they were wed alongside three pairs of grooms with former mayor Job Cohen presiding over the ceremony. Anne-Marie, shown on the right side of this picture, says "We married for love, not politics," yet their marriage cause political ripple throughout the world. The Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay marriage, followed by Belgium two years later. Now, the Netherlands is one of 10 countries to have gay marriage legalized in the past decade, but I give them props for being first in line to battle marriage inequality. Now, 20 percent of all gay couples in the country are married, making up about 2 percent of the total marriages in the last decade and putting the number of gay marriages around 15,000. Faasen and Thus now live in the souter part of the Netherlands with their two children Nathan, 10, and Myrthle, 9. As heartwarming as this tale is, there is still much work to be done on the road to equality.

Boris Dittrich, director of the LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch says, “The fact that same-sex marriage has been legalized on three continents demonstrates progress in equality.  However, while the right to same-sex marriage may be viewed as the last step in ending discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, legalization does not end discrimination, either by officials or other people.” In the Netherlands alone, 428 homophobic acts were committed, almost one fifth of them involving physical violence. Seven in ten homosexual individuals have encountered physical or verbal abuse in their lifetimes. Nearly half of the Dutch polled in a recent study say they find two men kissing in public offensive.

Thus and Faasen have some thoughts on the prejudices placed on gay couples. Faasen says, "As a homosexual person, the whole world concerns itself with your private life, even though you are not into anything weird or freaky or scary for the children. Those are, of course, the prejudices." Thus reflects on the difficulty gay couples have getting married in other countries, saying "We were lucky that others had taken up the fight and made it possible for us to get married. If other people need us now, especially in countries where it is not yet legal, we want to be there for them."