Iceland Lesbian PM Marries Her Partner

You may recall that Iceland made history last year by electing an openly lesbian prime minister and made an even bigger bang by enacting a gay marriage bill unanimously a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, these two stories combined when PM Johanna Sigurdadottir married her partner Jonina Leosdottir, the first day gay marriage became legal in the country she leads.

Sigurdardottir, in her late 60s, formally married writer Jonina Leosdottir after the couple submitted a demand for their civil union to be transformed into a marriage, the RUV broadcaster said.

Iceland's parliament on June 12 unanimously adopted legislation allowing gay marriage, in a law that came into effect on Sunday.

Homosexual couples could previously enter into a civil partnership and benefit from the same rights as heterosexual couples, but this had not been considered a formal marriage.

Sigurdardottir, born in 1942, took power in February 2009. She has lived with Ledsdottir, who is in her 50s, for several years and the couple entered a civil union in 2002.

Congratulations to the newly-weds! Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

Iceland Parliament Unanimously Passes Marriage Bill

Iceland, which is the first major country to have an openly gay leader, lesbian Johanna Sigurdardottir, became the first country to enact a marriage equality without any opposition when the Parliament voted 49-0 to pass a bill eliminating gender distinctions in marriage law in Iceland.

From the Iceland Review

Althingi parliament passed a bill of laws yesterday stating that all citizens are to have access to the same marriage laws, regardless of their sexual preference. In all, 49 MPs voted for the laws but 14 MPs were absent.

Instead of the words “man and woman,” the law now reads “two individuals”. This means that gay people can now get married in churches and in civil ceremonies.

The law will go into effect on June 27th.

Iceland Elects Lesbian PM To Full Term

After a snap election, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir's party has won an estimated 35 seats in the 63 member Parliament to claim a full four-year term as the first openly gay person elected to head a country.

The New York Times reports:

It would also confirm a remarkable turnaround in the political fortunes of Johanna Sigurdardottir, the 66-year-old caretaker prime minister, who is the first woman to lead Iceland’s government. Only months ago, before January’s turmoil, she was readying herself for retirement after 30 years in politics and was widely seen as too feisty, and even too left wing, to rise beyond a series of midlevel coalition cabinet appointments.

Ms. Sigurdardottir is notable, too, for being the first openly declared lesbian to lead a government in the modern world, though her sexual orientation was never a significant election issue. What Icelanders say they like about her, as much as anything, is the way in which she embodies everything the New Vikings did not: a quiet, steady personality uncomfortable with the public spotlight, who chose to stay away earlier this month from a NATO summit meeting in Europe, where she would have met President Obama and other Western leaders for the first time.

In Iceland, the storyline of the election has closely followed the growing partnership at the head of the government between Ms. Sigurdardottir, a former flight attendant, and Steingrimur Sigfusson, the 53-year-old former truck driver and geologist who leads the Left-Greens. He, too, is a combative character, though as much at ease with the hurly burly of politics as the shy Ms. Sigurdardottir is not.

MadProfessah first reported this story in January when Sigurdardottir was named as a caretaker Prime Minister and made history as the first lesbian head of state of a modern nation. It is amazing that she has made history again winning election to lead her nation of 300,000 people. 

Iceland To Name Lesbian Prime Minister!

Johanna Sigurdardottir will become the first openly gay or lesbian leader of a modern country on Saturday when she is named the Prime Minister of Iceland.

Sigurdardottir, 66, is currently the social affairs minister and once was a flight attendant and union organiser.

Now she is the consensus pick of the two main parties forming the next parliamentary governement as well as the most popular politician in her financially distressed country.

Ms Sigurdardottir has two grown-up sons. She entered politics via the labour movement, was first elected to parliament in 1978 and was given her first ministerial office in 1987. She will be Prime Minister of a minority caretaker government composed of her Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Greens, with outside support. It is only expected to hold office for two or three months, until fresh elections are called.

"In opinion polls Johanna has repeatedly been chosen as the most popular politician in Iceland," said the government source. "She is a good choice, because one of the problems the government is facing is lack of trust. Getting Johanna to become Prime Minister was a way of saying trust is an issue. Politicians want a fresh mandate from the electorate and, before they get it, they need to rebuild trust. Choosing Johanna is a way of saying, 'Let's bridge this gap, let's have peace to be able to implement the emergency measures'."

[A] poll in November [that] gave Ms Sigurdardottir a 73 per cent approval rating, she was the only minister to improve on the previous year's score.

"She is often described as the only politician who really cares about the little guy," wrote Icelandic journalist Iris Erlingsdottir in a blog this week.

She did stand for the leadership of her party back in 1994 and lost badly, but in her concession speech she predicted "my time will come". And some 15 years later, it truly has.

(When) do you think that America will have an openly gay President?