Yes, Iceland can!
By the time this column goes to print, the world’s first openly lesbian head of state will have taken office in Iceland.
Last week, outgoing Independence Party Prime Minister Geir Haarde terminated his own government rather than allow his coalition partners to dump him over his handling of the country’s recent economic woes.
The decision came days after the country became the first Western nation to approach the International Monetary Fund for aid since 1976, following months of mass protests.
Haarde’s successor is Social Democrats leader Johanna Sigurdardottir, who registered a civil partnership with Jonina Leosdottir, one of Iceland’s leading women playwrights, in 2002. The couple have been together over thirty years and have raised three children.
At 66, Sigurdardottir is the longest serving politician in the Icelandic Parliament, acting as the nation’s Minister for Social Affairs five times. With the country feeling the wrath of unfettered capitalist excess, a return to old-style Scandinavian progressive governance seems to be exactly what Icelanders are looking for.
Siguardardottir’s longstanding support for Iceland joining the European Union now seems prophetic to many. Iceland’s currency, the krona, has nearly halved in value and prices in supermarkets have shot up almost eighty percent. Had Iceland joined the EU and converted its currency into euros it would have taken far less of a battering in the current global downturn.
And Siguardardottir’s rise to power could have a flow-on effect on gay rights both in the region and worldwide.
Should Iceland now join the EU, Norway will feel considerable pressure to come into the fold as well. Both would swell the ranks of MPs in the European Parliament who are staunch GLBT rights defenders (upping pressure on less accepting Eastern European members and candidate states such as Turkey to lift their game) at a time when EU nations are increasingly looking at tying foreign aid to progress on human rights.
Siguardardottir’s coalition with the Greens and Progressive parties will govern Iceland until elections in May -” at which she has every chance of being elected in her own right.
Shayne, I didn’t state that the Governor-General was our head of state- only that the Icelandic presidency performed a similar role in their system of government. Pardon me for assuming my readers are aware that Australia isn’t a republic.
Siguardardottir’s rise to become Prime Minister is not particularly extraordinary within an Icelandic context- but for GLBT people around the world in less progressive countries it is of the utmost “relevance” and one heck of a milestone.
The difference between Roger Karoutchi and Siguardardottir is that Karoutchi rose to become Secretary of State in the closet (he’s never contested an election as an openly gay man) whereas Siguardardottir is openly gay, has stood before the people as such, and has always been returned to office since coming out.
Elizabeth II, the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is Australia’s Head of State Mr. Potts, not the Governor-General. I do not need to google simple matters of civics. Pardon my being so pedantic, it’s just that I do tire of media in this country being so uninformed.
More to the point, I suppose, I don’t see what the woman’s sexuality has to do with anything. When French minister Roger Karoutchi, Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs -œcame out on 23rd Jan 2009 members of the UMP siad, -œSo what? The fact that Sigurdardottir has the respect and admiration of the Icelandic people is critical to the nation’s recovery. The fact that she is a lesbian has no relevance. I doubt most Icelanders voted for her because she is a lesbian. I hope not, anyway.
Yes shayne, that is true- but the Icelandic presidency is a largely ceremonial role like our Governor General, unlike, say the French or American presidencies. It is definitely Siguardardottir who his running the country and that is what will matters to the world. Thank you for Googling.
Johanna Sigurdardottir is not a head of state. She is the head of the Icelandic government. In a parliamentary republic, the president, (Ólafur Ragnar GrÃmsson) is the head of state.