The first gay marriage between an Italian citizen, Pierangelo Bucci, 29, originally from Rome, and a foreign citizen, Jaco Rozendaal, 29, from the Netherlands, was celebrated this morning at the Stadhuis (Town Hall) in Rotterdam, the city where the two young men live together.
After the marriage of two young people from Latina, both Italian, in The Hague, this is the first inter-European gay marriage between an Italian citizen and a citizen of another EU country.
Relatives of the bride and groom, including Jaco's mother and sister, and the national president of Arcigay, Sergio Lo Giudice, who served as Pierangelo's best man, were present at the ceremony.
“"Today's marriage," Lo Giudice said, "represents a new, irreversible step toward full equal rights for homosexuals and the free movement of citizens within the Union.".
The Netherlands, along with Belgium, is the only country in the world to have opened traditional marriage to same-sex couples. Nine other European countries also recognize same-sex relationships: Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Luxembourg, and some regions of Spain.
While in Italy this privilege is reserved for a few homosexuals, in the Netherlands, where the law on open marriage to gay couples came into force in 2001, same-sex marriages represent 101 TP3T of the total.
