Iceland passes gay marriage law in unanimous vote

al Reuters ^ | 6/11/2010

[markomalley]

Iceland, the only country in the world to have an openly gay head of state, passed a law on Friday allowing same-sex partners to get married in a vote which met with no political resistance.

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.

Iceland, a socially tolerant island nation of about 320,000 people, became the first country to elect an openly gay head of state in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir became prime minister after being nominated by her party.

"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."

The prime minister's 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, Kristinsson added.

Iceland's protestant church has yet to decide whether to allow same-sex marriages in church, although the law says "ministers will always be free to perform (gay) marriage ceremonies, but never obliged to."

[markomalley]

ping

[omega4179]

If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything, says the devil.

[Publius Maximus]

Don’t be surprised when Katla explodes, then.

[SF_Redux]

they just want to rebuild their population

[Renderofveils]

They’ve been on a downhill course since they exiled Eric the Red.

[gogogodzilla]

What about animals? Denying people the right to marry their pets deprives them of their basic human rights!

Iceland is a disgusting, bigoted regime that must be boycotted for their inhumane treatment of animal lovers!

---

Just wait for it, you know that’s the next step.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

Sickening to watch a group of people die right in front of your eyes, like lemmings.

[SumProVita]

Well...we know they won’t be getting married in any Catholic Church!

[RaceBannon]

expect that other volcano to go off any day now...

[muawiyah]

Those volcanoes definitely gonna’ blow the place right out of the water this time.

[muawiyah]

All the people who want a future have already emigrated long ago.

These are the dregs left behind. They're broke. Don't want babies. The place is turning to lava flows under their feet.

Now the gay marriage thing.

[Salman]

Because volcano eruptions are God's way of dealing with misbehavior?

Oooga booga booga booga.

[gthog61]

amazing how the freaks can just pull normal people around by the nose

The whole reason for sex and our programmed strong desire for it is reproduction. If you are wired such that you want to stick it somewhere that wasn’t designed to receive it you have something wrong with you. You shouldn’t be harassed by anybody because of it but you still have something wrong with you.

[benewton]

I’ll not accept the redefinition of an ancient and valid word.

Marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

I’ve no clue what to call the gay thingy, but I do know that it can’t be a marriage.

[duckworth]

Right on. And then there’s my argument: homosexual “sex” is not sex. It may be orgasms, but it’s not sex, just as humping a mattress is not sex.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

Well, I for one am willing to wait it out and see what happens. Let us put the opposing views to the test.

Iceland even currently has a gay (Lesbian, actually) Prime Minister:

Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

The Gay Iceland web site says that in spite of the recent volcanic eruptions, Iceland is still the safest place:

http://gayice.is/news/latest/344-the-safests-place

The safest place
Wednesday, 19 May 2010 15:56

It might come as a surprise for some that Iceland is rated the safest country in the worldgiven the fact that there is an ongoing eruption in the now world famous glacier Eyjafjallajökull. But, according to Tourism-Review.com Iceland is on top of the safest country list with very low crime rate and unarmed officers (and they are not that many in the first place).

Despite the trouble Eyjafjallajokull has been causing in the air it has not caused any casualties. The Icelandic Tourist Board reminds all visitors and potential visitors to Iceland that day-to-day life in Iceland carries on as usual, even though the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier on the south coast of Iceland has made a profound impact and generated dangers in a very specific area. In other parts of the country, Icelanders' daily life is proceeding quite normally.

© Gayice.is 2010

Picture of Katla Volcano covered by the glacier Myrdalsjokull:

So if Katla doesn't blow and destroy Iceland over this, can we say that this Gay / Gay Marriage stuff is just not that important a matter to God?

[Rappini]

I’m glad you didn’t say increase their population because I’m trying to figure out how you can do that, if you’re a Fudge Packer.