Germany celebrates the first gay marriage after decades of struggle, though activists claim that the battle for equal rights has not yet ended, reports novini. 

In Berlin, Hamburg, Hannover, and other German cities, gay wedding bells sounded for the first time, while dozens of gay couples said yes on the day the law came into force. The 60-year-old Bodo Mende and his partner Carl Kreale, 59, who have been together since 1979, have been announced as the symbolic first male wedding couple. Their marriage performance has even been titled "Ehe für alle" and took place in the building of the municipality of Schöneberg in the presence of 100 relatives and friends, BTA announced.

Berlin Mayor Michael Müller greeted happy couples and described the first single-sex marriages as a "historic event." According to official data, 94,000 same-sex couples are officially registered in Germany, of which 46,000 live for a long time together without marriage. Chronologically, however, the first gay wedding had a Bulgarian connection - Berlin-born architect Adrian Petkov married Falker Beck a Green Party party politician in the municipality of Krautsberg. They signed on April 14 this year  in the Schönberg municipality, and today their cohabitation was only legitimized with the entry into force of the law.

Previously, Falker Beck lived for 16 years with a French businessman and LGBT activist Jacques Tessie, who died in 2009 at 54 years from cancer, the Thema noted.

Beck called his wedding a "political and personal exciting event": "This is a reality we fight for 28 years." After the pictures of today, I hope no one is allowed to have anything against it, "Beck wrote on Twitter. From today, Germany becomes the 15th European country to legalize same-sex marriages. In 2000, the Netherlands became the pioneer of the continent in this endeavor, followed by countries like Spain, Sweden, Britain and France. The Civil Rituals Act now states that "Marriage is concluded by two persons of different gender or one sex for the rest of their lives." Married gay and lesbian couples enjoy the same rights as heterogeneous marriages.

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