The Netherlands celebrates 25 years as the world’s first country to legalise same-sex marriage
April 1, 2026
Three couples said “I do” at Amsterdam City Hall on April 1 — exactly 25 years to the day since the Netherlands made history as the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema officiated the weddings herself, calling it “one of the most special moments as mayor.”
According to RTL Nieuws, the ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Rob Jetten, who became the Netherlands’ first openly gay prime minister after D66’s election win last year (and who has his own wedding plans in the pipeline).
A quarter century of history
On April 1, 2001, then-Mayor Job Cohen married four same-sex couples at the same city hall, in what became global news overnight.
Cohen was present again last night, and Halsema quoted his words from that day on social media: “Soon you will be able to say ‘we are married,’ and that sounds a lot better than saying ‘we are partnershiped.'”
READ MORE | 20 years ago today, the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage
Since that first ceremony, more than 36,000 same-sex couples have married in the Netherlands. The country’s lead has since been followed by more than 30 others, though the majority of the world still hasn’t caught up.
‘I belong, just like everyone else’
Jetten addressed the three couples — Rebecca and Sytske, Nico and Vital, and Eelke and Elton — personally, wishing them a happy marriage.
In a social media post afterwards, he reflected on what the original 2001 weddings had meant to him at just 14: “Thanks to the couples who led the way back then, as a 14-year-old teenager, I saw confirmed what I still doubted inwardly: I belong, just like everyone else.”
He was quick to add, however, that nothing should be taken for granted.
“This acquired right is not a self-evident right,” he said, adding that the best response is to do what the couples did — giving each other “the most important place in your life in front of everyone.”
Where were you when same-sex marriage became legal — and what does this 25th anniversary mean to you? Let us know in the comments.
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