White House omits husband of world’s only openly gay leader from photo caption

The White House has been criticised after omitting the husband of Luxembourg’s Prime Minister from a photo caption.

Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, posed alongside the wives of world leaders for an historic picture at Royal Castle of Laeken on Thursday night (May 25).

He joined First Ladies and partners including Brigitte Macron (France), Melania Trump (USA) Emine Gulbaran Erdogan (Turkey), Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Ingrid Schulerud (Norway), Desislava Radeva (Bulgaria), Amelie Derbaudrenghien (wife of Belgium’s Prime Minister) Mojca Stropnik (Slovenia) and Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir (Iceland).

When The White House added the image to their official Facebook account, however, the image did not include Gauthier in the caption – only identifying the women in the picture.

White House official Facebook page does not list First Gentleman of Luxembourg in the caption. He is gay and married to the Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/TB7VhYI0MH

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) May 27, 2017

While the mistake was later rectified and Destenay was added to the caption, users were quick to accuse the White House of homophobia.

One commenter wrote: “So wonderful to see a first husband. So sad the White House is either too ignorant or too petty to actually name him.”

The White House did not give an explanation as to why the omission was made, or whether it was simply a mistake.

This administration wouldn’t hesitate to wipe us out if they could. (But they can’t.) https://t.co/8ZIwVk1mIk

— Matt Baume (@MattBaume) May 28, 2017

Destenay, a Belgian architect, married Bettel in May 2015, just months after same-sex marriage was legalised in Luxembourg.

Bettel became Luxembourg’s first openly gay Prime Minister when he assumed office in 2013, and is currently the world’s only openly gay leader.

He is just the world’s third openly gay head of government in history, following Iceland’s former Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Belgium’s former Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.

Luxembourg is also the only country in the world to have both a gay Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Etienne Schneider.

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