The Netherlands has elected an openly gay prime minister — and its youngest ever — following a surprise political upset.
Rob Jetten, 38, made history when his centrist-liberal D66 party defeated right-wing populist Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom. Wilders, an anti-immigration firebrand and longtime EU skeptic, had been heavily favored to win. But D66 ran up margins in the country’s major cities to overcome his lead, reported the BBC.
“We are the biggest party in the Netherlands! Now we’ll get to work for all Dutch people,” Jetten wrote on X.
Jetten held up his surprise victory as a model for center-left parties fighting the rise of right-wing populism worldwide. He cast himself as a patriotic progressive but also broke with liberal orthodoxy on immigration — Wilders’ strongest issue — by calling for limits on migration and acknowledging that increased immigration can create “a burden in large working-class neighborhoods.”
“I think we’ve now shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat the populist movements if you campaign with a positive message for your country,” Jetten told reporters on October 31, two days after the election, according to Al Jazeera.
Since November of last year, Jetten has been engaged to Nico Keenan, a bisexual two-time Olympian who competed for Argentina in field hockey but now plays midfielder and forward for Klein Zwitserland in the Hoofdklasse, the top league in the Netherlands. The couple is expected to wed next year.
Speaking to the Dutch outlet Trouw in April, Keenan said he had received messages of support and gratitude from fans for competing as an openly bisexual athlete.
“People told me how happy they were that there was finally an openly bisexual hockey player in the Premier League,” he said.
As People magazine notes, Jetten has been supportive of Keenan, cheering him on from the stands at Stade Yves-du-Manoir during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It remains unclear how visible the pair will be on both the domestic and international stages as a same-sex couple — particularly during diplomatic missions or state affairs, and especially when engaging with countries less accepting of LGBTQ identities or same-sex relationships than the Netherlands.
On October 29, election night, the 28-year-old Keenan posted a TikTok video of the couple preparing for their election night party, set to Raye’s “Where the Hell is My Husband?” In the video, the two adjust their suits on screen before sharing a small kiss. Jetten then steps out of the frame while Keenan mouths “Let’s go.”
Keenan captioned the post “Election night, let’s go,” adding fire and heart-hands emojis.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, an out lesbian, is threatening to sue House Speaker Mike Johnson for refusing to seat a duly elected Democratic congresswoman from her state.
In an October 14 letter to Johnson, Mayes accused the House Republican leader of violating the U.S. Constitution by delaying the swearing-in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva. Grijalva won a September 23 special election to replace her father, Raúl, who represented Tucson and southern Arizona in Congress for more than two decades.
Mayes noted that during Johnson's tenure as speaker, he swore in five new members -- four of them Republicans -- "at the earliest opportunity." That included two GOP special election winners who were sworn in earlier this year while the House was in recess, according to The New York Times.
Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has pledged to make New York City a sanctuary city for transgender people.
In a new campaign ad honoring Latina trans activist Sylvia Rivera -- a pioneering figure in the early LGBTQ rights movement -- Mamdani sits at a desk near the Christopher Street Pier in Greenwich Village, recounting Rivera’s life and the pier’s significance as a haven for LGBTQ people in the city.
As photos and video clips of Rivera and other activists flash across the screen, Mamdani recounts her legacy of activism -- from her role in early gay and trans rights demonstrations to founding Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which provided food and shelter for homeless trans people, and her push for LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination laws.
Ten people are on trial in France, accused of engaging in sexist online harassment of First Lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false and malicious claims about her.
The posts alleged that the French president's wife is transgender and was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux -- the name of her older brother. Some also equated the 25-year age gap between the 72-year-old first lady and her 47-year-old husband to "pedophilia," according to Agence France-Presse.
The Macrons first met in 1993, when Brigitte was a 39-year-old married teacher at Lycée La Providence in Amiens and Emmanuel Macron was her 15-year-old student -- and a classmate of her daughter. (The age of consent in France is 15.) They reconnected years later after Macron graduated from Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and married in 2007.
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