On April 1, 2026, the Netherlands is celebrating the 25th anniversary of a historic event: on April 1, 2001, the world's first same-sex marriages took place in Amsterdam, making the Netherlands the first country to legalize same-sex marriage.
To mark this anniversary, Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema officiated at three same-sex couple weddings just after midnight in the city hall's council chamber, in the presence of Prime Minister Rob Jetten. A symbolic ceremony honoring the first four couples married in 2001.
According to the Netherlands' Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), over 36,000 same-sex couples have married in the Netherlands since 2001, with just over half being female couples. As of early 2026, the country had 25,000 married same-sex couples, including nearly 12,000 male couples.
Since the Netherlands in 2001, same-sex marriage has been legalized in 36 countries. The most recent include Greece (2024) and Thailand (2024). However, in 64 countries, homosexual relations remain criminalized, and in some, they are punishable by death.
The event holds particular resonance in 2026, against a backdrop of contrasting global LGBTQ+ rights: the US Supreme Court's decision on conversion therapies and the IOC's new policy on transgender athletes illustrate persistent tensions between progress and regression of rights in different parts of the world.
