29 Jun 2010

Iceland's gay prime minister weds partner

Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir married her long-term partner on Sunday after laws legalising same-sex marriage came into effect.


Johanna Sigurdardottir, the world's first openly gay head of government

Johanna Sigurdardottir, the world's first openly gay head of government, has married her partner under a new law that defined marriage as a union between two consenting adults regardless of sex.

According to the UK Telegraph which quoted a local broadcaster said the 68-year-old formally married Jonina Leosdottir, a writer in her fifties, after the couple submitted a demand for their civil union to be transformed into a marriage.

The couple entered a civil union in 2002 under exisiting civil partnership laws that accorded same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples.

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

Sigurdardottir became Iceland's prime minister last year, after the previous center-right government was ousted by a wave of protest triggered by the country's economic crisis.

Iceland