Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed a law last week granting same-sex partners the right to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance.
Huh? What? Huh?
Iceland? More progressive than the United States.
The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between "man and man, woman and woman," in addition to unions between men and women.
Of course, Iceland also is the first country in the world to elect an openly gay head of state back in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir [pictured above] became prime minister. Her sexual orientation garnered far more interest among foreign media than in Iceland, where the attitude toward homosexuality has grown increasingly relaxed in the past two or three decades.
"The attitude in Iceland is fairly pragmatic," said Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland. "It (gay marriage) has not been a big issue in national politics -- it's not been controversial."
Not.Been. Controversial.
Iceland. Who knew?
Well, they had to do something nice to make up for all that volcanic ash.
ReplyDeleteThe Engineer's Aunt and Uncle lived there for about five years - attached to the military. Enjoyed their time there a lot.
And that's the difference between a country ruled by religion and one ruled by thought...sigh. If only ours was the latter.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info!
I was delighted to hear that marriage would become legal in Iceland, but that didn't surprise me at all. They are leagues ahead of us here in the states.
ReplyDelete