AMSTERDAM (AP) — Wearing rainbow flags, sequins and sometimes hardly anything at all, dozens of people lined up in a pink church at Amsterdam’s Pride festival on Thursday to get married, or at least married for the day.
The Married For A Day event was part of the annual event’s celebration of marriage, held a short walk away from where the world’s first legalized same-sex unions took place 25 years ago.
The Netherlands was the first country to allow
gay marriage but the institution as a whole is in decline among the Dutch. The number of married adults has dropped nearly 10% since same-sex unions were permitted as more couples choose to live together without tying the knot.
But for Jan Derksen-Wynn and John Wijfjes, the first couple to get married for a day, the right to be married is as important as ever.
“You have to have the right to get married,” Derksen-Wynn told The Associated Press emphatically, as the wind blew his veil across his face.
The two men plan to get married for more than a day eventually. But “it’s only been two years,” he said.
Same-sex weddings are commonplace now in the Netherlands. Since 2001, more than 36,000 same-sex couples have married, according to the country’s official statistics office.
Prime Minister Rob Jetten, the country’s first openly gay leader, is planning to soon marry his partner Nicolás Keenan, an Argentine field hockey star who won a bronze medal with his country’s team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Jetten was the first Dutch prime minister to ever take part in the famous canal boat parade. He said on Saturday the event was more important than ever because worldwide the freedom and security of the LGBTQ+ community “is under pressure with new discriminatory legislation, lack of safety on the street or last week’s terrible attack in Berlin.”
While many gay couples relish the right to marriage, the Dutch overall are turning away from the institution. In 1995, 56% of adults were married. In 2025, that number had dropped to 44% according to the country’s statistics office. In the United States, 62% of adults were married according to the census bureau.
Instead, the Dutch have turned to cohabitation agreements, a legally binding document signed by many couples when they move in together that sets out financial arrangements and how assets will be divided if the relationship ends. According to the Dutch notary association, 42,500 such contracts were signed in 2025.
Regardless of the overall numbers, for Julia van den Beek, who organized the wedding event, it’s still important to celebrate marriage.
“Love comes in every shape, in every form, in every way,” she told AP, just before declaring the first couple joined in eternal matrimony.
Or until the sun comes up.
