Iceland Elects Openly Gay Prime Minister

Iceland has elected the world’s first openly gay leader. 

Prime Minister Johnanna Sigurdardottir is gay.

She also has a last name with 14 letters.  

Above you see a picture of Prime Minister Sigurdardottir.

Here is some information about Prime Minister Sigurdardottir from a London Times article— 

….a historic milestone for the gay and lesbian community worldwide. She lives with a journalist, Jonina Leosdottir, with whom she was joined in a 2002 civil partnership, and has two sons from a previous marriage. It is also a significant personal triumph for a politician who managed to retain, and even increase, her popularity while much of Iceland’s political class were pilloried over the financial crisis engulfing the country. …The new leader is known for allocating generous amounts of public funding to help the disabled, the elderly and organisations tackling domestic violence, and she is seen by many as a unifying character capable of solving tensions in Iceland….After acting as a union organiser when she worked as a flight attendant for Loftleidir Airlines, now Icelandair, in the 1960s and 1970s, Ms Sigurdardottir was elected to Iceland’s parliament in 1978. She served as social affairs minister from 1987-1994 and again from 2007.

Here is a web site about Iceland with many good facts and pictures. 

Please click here for a report on the election from the Seattle Gay News.  

It is true that Seattle, with a population of 582,000, has more people than does Iceland. Iceland has 304,000 people.

No matter—Iceland is a nation and Seattle is only a city.

(Below–Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik. Here is information on visiting Reykjavik. ) 

Prime Minster Sigurdardottir was appointed to her post last February after the collapse of Iceland’s economy led to the demise of Iceland’s right -of-center government. The main issue in Iceland is the impact of the global financial collapse. Iceland took a big hit last year and there were large street protests.  Please click here to read about economic and political troubles in Iceland.

Prime Minister Sigudardottir’s Social Democrats won 20 seats in the 63 member parliament in the April 25 election. The Greens won 14 seats. A coalition government was formed.

The Icelandic parliament is called the Althing. It literally means the “all-thing” of Iceland. It can trace it roots back to the year 930. Here is the web home of the Althing. 

It seems that for many years the Althing met on the big rock you see drawn below. The Speaker would sit on a high point of the rock.

Should they meet, will Prime Minster Sigudardottir ask President Barack Obama why he opposes gay marriage?

It is excellent that we are making progress and that we are seeing world leaders that are more like the people they represent.

Yet progress is still far away in many nations. ( Including the United States in a number of respects.) Here is a link to Global Voices where you can read about issues of gay rights around the world.   

(  Below–An Icelandic Horse.  This breed was developed in Iceland.)