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After becoming the first openly head of state, Iceland's prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, 68, has now become the first national leader with a same-sex spouse after marrying her long-time partner, Jonina Leosdottir.
On June 27, Iceland joined countries like Spain, Canada, and South Africa in granting full family parity to gays and lesbians. The law was passed unanimously by Iceland's parliament. Prime minister Sigurdardottir quickly applied to upgrade her 7-year civil partnership with Leosdottir to a legal marriage. Marriage in Iceland is now defined as a union between "two consenting adults regardless of sex."
What an incredible story. I echo Perez Hilton's wishes:Iceland has long been a relatively friendly nation toward its gay and lesbian citizens, recounted Icelandic blog the Iceland Weather Report in a June 27 post. In 1996, Iceland extended civil partnerships to gay and lesbian couples. And while there has been some faith-based bias expressed against gay and lesbian families, even that appears to be changing: "The Bishop over Iceland, Hr. Karl Sigurbjörnsson, yesterday apologized publicly to gays and lesbians for a comment that he made in an interview in 2006, where he said that allowing gays and lesbians to marry was akin to ’trashing’ the institution of marriage," reported the Iceland Weather Report. "A great number of ministers in the church openly opposed this view and lobbied for the law to be changed--which was finally done a couple of weeks ago."
In the United States, by contrast, only six states allow same-sex families to wed, and even then the rights and protections offered are limited to the state level. Federal law--the 1996 so-called "Defense of Marriage" Act--bans any federal recognition of same-sex families, with the result that gay families are faced with a wildly disparate patchwork of rights and protections from state to state.
Congratulations ladies! What you've achieved in your country we hope makes its way to ours very soon! Make sure you mention how happy you all are at the next UN Summit!
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I'm glad Iceland is ahead of the pack. Pretty much all the Scandinavian countries have gender neutral marriage now. Could it be that Lutheranism is more queer friendly