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Thanks to Richard for this. Article by Iris Erlingsdottir, Icelandic journalist and writer

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Posted January 27, 2009

Icelandic Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, Would Be World's First Gay PM

Icelandic Social Affairs Minister Johanna Sigurðardottir would be the world's first openly gay leader if she becomes Prime Minister of Iceland, as is widely expected. Although Per-Kristian Foss served as acting Prime Minister in Norway very briefly in 2002, this represents the first time that a gay leader would assume the reins of a modern state.

As has been extensively reported, Iceland is in the midst of an economic and political crisis that has brought down the ruling coalition of Geir Haarde. Although elections have been called for in May, Mr. Haarde has announced that he will step down because of the discovery of a malignant tumor on his esophagus earlier this week.


Icelandic Minister of Social Affairs, Johanna Sigurdardottir. Photo credit: Althingi.is

This small North Atlantic nation was the first to elect a female head of state when Vigdís Finnbogadóttir became its 4th president in 1980. Although that event was widely publicized at the time, Ms. Sigurðardóttir's appointment has been met with general apathy both inside and outside the country.

I guess I still have the attitude of most Icelanders when it comes to matters of sexual issues, because I failed to pick up on the newsworthiness of Sigurdardottir's sexual orientation. "Oh, vow," said an American friend of mine, "that's really something! First openly gay world leader!"

Huh? Why, who cares? Even after living in America all these years, where hounding politicians into surrealistic hell about their private lives is the norm, it didn't really ring bells for me. "I don't see what her sexual orientation has to do with anything," my mother told me yesterday. "It's no one's business but her own."

My usually taciturn father agreed strongly. "She is the most trusted and respected politician in the country," he said, "and she is simply the best person available for the job. Ja, that is just pervert thinking," he replied when I told him that her sexual orientation would probably be more newsworthy in America than anything else surrounding her appointment.

Sigurdardottir, 66, has a long background in Icelandic liberal politics. She has been a member of Althingi (the Parliament) since 1978, was Minister of Social Affairs in 1987 until 1994, and again in 2007. She is one of the most popular politicians in the country; in a recent Gallup poll 73 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with her work. She is also the only minister whose popularity had increased compared to a similar poll undertaken in December 2007.

Sigurðardottir is the mother of two grown sons and is married to Icelandic writer and playwright Jonina Leosdottir. She is often described by many of her countrymen as the only politician who really cares about the "little guy." She has devoted her career to fighting for the welfare and equality of minority groups - women, the elderly, the poor, disabled, and immigrants. She holds no fancy foreign diplomas - she has a Commercial degree from the Commercial College of Iceland - nor extensive family or wealth connections like many Icelandic politicians but has diligently worked her way up the political ladder through hard work and determination. Her professional career includes working in the 60s and 70s as a flight attendant for Icelandair (the old Loftleidir Airlines) and an office worker in Reykjavik.

Germans agonized over whether they were ready for its first gay leader in 2006 after that country's leading homosexual politician, Klaus Wowereit, 55, who proudly hugged his long-standing boyfriend in front of television cameras, won a second term as mayor of Berlin. The French grappled with the issue in 2001 when Bertrand Delanoë, 59, one of the country's first openly gay politicians became mayor of Paris. Last year, the popular Delanoë declared his candidacy for leadership of France's Socialist party and has been said to be considering running for president in 2012.

"No one has ever talked about Johanna (Icelanders always use first names) as a gay person," an Icelandic friend and a prominent journalist told me this morning. "She's not hiding it either, the name of her spouse is on her Parliament and Ministry web pages, it's just that nobody cares about it, any more than people cared in 1980, when Vigdis Finnbogadottir ran for president, that she was a woman and a single mother to boot.

"Johanna is very smart and not afraid to tackle difficult issues, and I think she can unite us," my friend added. "Reasonable, sane people are not going to care about people's gender or color. They just want the best person for the job."

Thanks to Chales for this article:

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Iceland's Prime Minister Marks Gay Milestone
February 1, 2009
by: Vanessa Buschschluter, BBC News via TruthOut


Johanna Sigurdardottir is Iceland's new prime minister. (Photo: Brynjar Gauti / AP)

Johanna Sigurdardottir, named as Iceland's prime minister on Sunday, is the first openly lesbian head of government in Europe, if not the world - at least in modern times.

The 66-year-old's appointment as an interim leader, until elections in May, is seen by many as a milestone for the gay and lesbian movement.

Up until now, if a gay man or woman has been prime minister, they have done their best to conceal the fact.

In Iceland itself, however, the new prime minister's sexual orientation appears to be causing less excitement than it is abroad.

What is really historic about this new cabinet, says Skuli Helgeson, the general secretary of Ms Sigurardottir's Social Democratic Alliance, is not the fact that its leader is a lesbian, but that for the first time in Icelandic history it boasts an equal number of men and women. "I don't think her sexual orientation matters. Our voters are pretty liberal, they don't care about any of that," he told BBC News.

But not all European countries are as tolerant, says Juris Lavrikovs of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) in Brussels. There is a huge divide between eastern and western Europe, he says. "The countries of the former Soviet Union were cut off from some of the social developments which have brought us this far in the past 50 years. "A pink curtain divides us. And it will probably take a long time for eastern European countries to reach the same level of tolerance," Mr Lavrikovs says.

However, even in these countries he notes signs of change. "In Latvia, where I'm from, some of the political parties are approaching gay, lesbian and transgender groups and talking to them about including gay candidates in their party lists," he says.

In most of western Europe the coming-out of a politician will still make headlines. Only last week, Roger Karoutchi became the first French government minister to disclose his homosexuality. A minister for parliamentary relations, he said he was happy with his male partner and saw no reason to hide it. But friends of his have been quoted as saying that he came out with the revelation because "attacks by his enemies" left him no choice.

Matthew Parris, who served as a Conservative Member of Parliament in Britain from 1979 until 1986, says politicians are often more worried than they should be about making their sexual orientation public. "Speaking from my own experience, I was sort of in the closet when I was an MP, and I always imagined that the world would fall in if people found out," he says. "Well, when I finally did come clean, it turned out most of my constituents had guessed already and didn't give a damn!"

He believes gay politicians are often still frightened to come out. "They tend to hear the reactionary minority that speaks out against homosexuality, not the majority who quietly approve. "If they came out, they'd be pleasantly surprised by the public reaction!" He sees no barrier to a gay or lesbian politician
making it to the top job in British politics within the next decade.

Despite the Spanish Socialist Party's strong backing for gay rights, there are currently no openly gay members in Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero's government. Nevertheless, Silvia Jaen, secretary-general of the Spanish Federation of Gays, Lesbians, Transsexuals and Bisexuals says the country is ready for a gay prime minister. "These days, homosexuality gives you neither an advantage nor a disadvantage in politics. "There was a time when you would have received a lot of extra press coverage for being gay - these days it's a footnote."

She does however say that gay politicians in the conservative Popular Party still face opposition from some of their Catholic base. "But we're miles away from the days of Franco. According to a recent poll, 72% of Spanish voters support equal rights for homosexuals," she says.

Ms Jaen does believe there is still a deeply ingrained machismo in Spanish society. "Female ministers get a lot more stick from the press, be it because of what they're wearing or how they're behaving. "I think we're more likely to see a gay man governing Spain before we ever see a straight woman as prime minister."

Both Silvia Jaen and Juris Lavrikovs think Iceland's lesbian prime minister has made history. Until now, Ms Sigurdardottir - who was joined in a civil partnership with Jonina Leosdottir in 2002 - has been a popular Social Affairs minister. In one recent Gallup poll, 73% of respondents said they were satisfied with her work.

"Here's a shining example of a country which has overcome its prejudices against those of a different sexual orientation," says Mr Lavrikovs. "It won't cause any overnight changes, but it'll send a signal which can't be ignored." And Silvia Jaen says that by simply turning up with her civil law partner at official ceremonies and state visits, Johanna Sigurdardottir will already force other European leaders to confront their prejudices.

"If I could, I would take the next plane to Reykjavik to celebrate with Ms Sigurdardottir. "It's not only a victory for lesbians, it's a victory for women, ctually make that a victory for all!"

THIS IS THE MESS SHE INHERITS !!

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Iceland Teeters On Bankruptcy
Forbes.com Parmy Olson, 10.08.08

Investors won't touch its currency; Fitch and Moody's have lowered their sovereign ratings.

Iceland is getting closer to becoming the first nation to go bankrupt as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting squeeze on lending. Late Wednesday afternoon in Europe, Fitch Ratings said it had cut Iceland's long-term sovereign currency issuer default ratings to "BBB-," from "A," putting them firmly in "junk" territory. Moody's also cut Iceland's sovereign rating to "A1," from "Aa1," and said its ratings were on review, according to
TradeTheNews.com.

Meanwhile, Iceland's central bank has abandoned an attempt to peg its currency at 131 kronor to the euro after just two days. The central bank had tried selling the currency at that level on the interbank market for foreign currency, which is how its exchange rate is normally determined, but gave up when no one would buy it. But on Wednesday, the central bank said on its Web site that it had become "clear that there is insufficient support for this exchange rate; therefore, the bank will not make any further such efforts for the time being."

The kronor dropped by about a quarter against the dollar and the euro on Wednesday, and by evening in Reykyavik, the euro bought 172.16 kronor, up from 135.83 kronor on Tuesday, and the dollar bought 126.5 kronor, up from 100.13 kronor on Tuesday.

Most currency investors are shying away from any exposure to Iceland, a country which has been hard hit by the lending crisis partly because it is so heavily exposed to the banking sector, which dwarfs the rest of the economy. The U.K. government has even threatened to sue the country over lost deposits held by tens of thousands of Brits with Icelandic bank accounts.

Iceland's now cash-strapped government had tried turning to several other countries for loans, but said it did not get a favorable response until it turned to Russia, which it said was giving it a multibillion-dollar loan (although even that loan has been disputed.)

The country's prime minister, Geir H. Haarde, said Wednesday that he was optimistic that Iceland would be able to secure the loan from the Russian government, but his citizens would have to face a reduction in living standards. The government of Iceland has been scrambling to put together a series of rescue packages for its banks and economy and has put two big banks, Landsbanki and Glitnir, into receivership.