White House Snubs Luxembourg's First Gentleman

The Trump administration is pretending the gay husband of Luxembourg's prime minister just doesn't exist.

LGBT people felt pride this week to see the first gentleman of Luxembourg standing alongside the spouses of other NATO countries. But when the White House posted the official photo of that moment to its Facebook page on Saturday, the Trump administration pretended Gauthier Destenay wasn't in the picture.

Destenay is the husband of Luxembourg's prime minister, Xavier Bettel, and he's clearly standing just over first lady Melania Trump's shoulder. Still, he wasn't initially identified in the caption. Meanwhile, every other person standing with the first lady is named in the caption -- all eight of them. Destenay's name was finally added to the caption about nine hours after it was posted.

The prime minister and his husband were married in 2015, when Luxembourg legalized same-sex marriage. Their wedding was a first for world leaders in the European Union.

President Trump has repeatedly said he's an ally to LGBT people while doing nothing to prove that claim and doing lots to counteract it. The Trump administration, for example, revoked guidance that President Obama's Education Department issued to schools on transgender equality. His administration has no HIV and AIDS policy, except that activists say the proposed repeal of Obamacare would increase transmission of HIV. And although members of his administration have condemned the systemic torture of gay men in Chechnya, Trump himself has said nothing. The U.S. has denied visas to those trying to flee for safety.