Denmark PM Sets Date Marriage Equality Legalized

Excellent news! As I blogged about last October, the Government of Denmark has announced that it will be enacting marriage equality in the near future, and today comes word that the date will be June 15th, 2012.

At her weekly press conference, Tuesday, Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the government is putting the finishing touches to a bill that will come into force on June 15th, allowing homosexuals and lesbians to walk down the aisle in the church of their choice – if they can find a priest who’s willing to conduct the ceremony.

“It will always be up to the individual priest as to whether he or she is prepared to bless gay couples but this legislation provides homosexuals with the same rights as heterosexuals,” said the PM.

Way back in 1989, Denmark was the very first country in the world to have state-sponsored recognition of same-sex couples when they enacted registered partnerships, which was essentially what we would now call civil unions or comprehensive domestic partnerships. Now, there are well over a half-dozen countries which have full marriage equality, led by the Netherlands in 2000 and followed by Canada, Argentina, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden and Norway.

Denmark is a European country of 5.5 million people, about the size of Minnesota or Wisconsin. When Maryland and Washington defend their marriage equality laws at the ballot box later this year, even more people (5.8 million and 6.8 million, respectively) will gain access to marriage equality.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

Celebrity Friday: Elio Di Rupo, openly gay Belgium PM

Elio Di Rupo is the new Prime Minister of Belgium. He is also the first openly gay male head of a national government. There has already been an openly lesbian head of a country, Johanna Sigurdardottir, the elected prime minister of Iceland.

Di Rupo is 60 years old and has been the openly gay head of his political party for years. He is becoming the consensus head of a government after a political standoff between the two main political parties in Belgium has lasted over 500 days.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

In 1999, he took the party's helm, winning consecutive seats as member of parliament, senator, European MP, deputy premier, head of the southern government of Wallonia and mayor of the city of Mons. 

Like Iceland's Johanna Sigurdardottir, Mr Di Rupo, a quiet if forceful politician, is as discreet about his sexuality as is the country at large. 

According to a just-released book of interviews, he came out a little by chance in the mid-1990s after being wrongly accused of abuse during the scandal caused by Belgian serial child killer Marc Dutroux. 

He is quoted as saying: "'This is totally false,' I said as a crowd of journalists milled around. One of them said: 'People say you're homosexual?' I turned around and said 'Yes. So what?' I'll never forget that instant. After my reply everything went silent. It was a sincere reply, the truth.'" 

A tactically clever politician, Mr Di Rupo has been hailed for his skill in striking coalition deals that kept his party in office in a string of governments. He also successfully steered it through a series of devastating corruption scandals.

Congratulations to Mr. Di Rupo!