Dutch gay couple reminisce about historic wedding

One of the first same-sex couples to get married in the Netherlands is celebrating 20 years of married life.

It's an anniversary made all the more special for Gert Kasteel and Dolf Pasker, as they were among the first four couples who tied the knot just after midnight on the day the Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriages.

They exchanged vows in a ceremony led by then-mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen that made headlines around the world.

The Dutch capital marked the anniversary by flying a huge rainbow flag from the tower of the landmark Westerkerk church next to the Anne Frank House museum and floating a giant wedding cake on the city's historic canals.

Later, the city held an online symposium and it designated a "rainbow walk" route along 20 sites considered important in the struggle for LGBTQ rights.

Sitting with his husband in their backyard in a small town close to Amsterdam, Pasker said he was pleased that the trail they blazed has been followed by many other nations.

Henk Krol, a former editor of the Netherlands' largest LGBTQ newspaper, this week called same-sex marriage the Netherlands' "most beautiful immaterial export product".

But COC, the country's largst LGBTQ organisation, said that work towards full equality is not complete in the Netherlands, even two decades after the first same-sex marriage.

"In our private life it could not be better", Pasker said.

"But we know from newspaper, television and people we speak (to) that there still are homophobic people and there is some aggression to gay people."