# Iceland gets a gay PM, is this a first? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239 "2009-01-27T16:27:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/1 "2009-01-27T16:27:11Z")
Iceland is about to get a new coalition government and we’ll have a woman for PM. This is a first for Iceland (who had the world’s first female Prez back in the 80.s). But the new PM is gay. Would this also be a world’s first? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/2 "2009-01-27T16:37:03Z")
There’s probably some king or pope or other leader who was gay that we never knew about. But that might be stretching the requirements of the OP, who’s probably looking for out-of-the-closet presidents/PMs. I don’t know of any of those; in the Netherlands we had a prominent politician who was a flaming homosexual and who insisted he’d be our next PM. But he was shot before that happened. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/3 "2009-01-27T16:37:05Z")
Yes, I believe so. She’ll be the first openly gay head of government in modern times. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/4 "2009-01-27T16:39:52Z")
Yeah, I mean openly “out of the closet” gay. She’s been living with her partner for loads of years and they got married\* in 2002. \*Don’t know if the ceremony was in a church or at city hall ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/5 "2009-01-27T16:47:47Z")
Openly gay leader number 2 will likely be Klaus Wowereit, mayor of Berlin, and potential SPD candidate for German Chancellor, or, failing that, Bertrand Delanoe, mayor of Paris, anmd potential Socialist candidate for President of France. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/6 "2009-01-27T16:51:59Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > There’s probably some king or pope or other leader who was gay that we never knew about. But that might be stretching the requirements of the OP, who’s probably looking for out-of-the-closet presidents/PMs. I don’t know of any of those; in the Netherlands we had a prominent politician who was a flaming homosexual and who insisted he’d be our next PM. But he was shot before that happened. You’re talking about Pim Fortune (spelling?) right? Wasn’t he also very right wing and anti immigrant? Kind of a cool combo, if one looks at the stereotypes. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/7 "2009-01-27T16:59:17Z")
Yep, Pim Fortuyn was right-wing and anti-immigrant, although he resented any comparisons to Le Pen, Haider (who, talking about gay politicians, turned out to have been in an affair with a male assistant after he died some months ago) and Flip Dewinter. Fortuyn was a flaming gay, very flamboyant, drove a Bentley, employed a butler in his mansion ‘Palazzo di Pietro’ (in downtown Rotterdam), had two tiny dogs. He openly stated to have slept with Moroccan guys and claimed that he could tell a whole bunch of things about people based on the taste of their semen. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/8 "2009-01-27T17:03:38Z")
He sounds like he would’ve been a blast to hang out and party with 🙂 Not sure if I’d have liked him to be my PM though. Ours is nothing like that. Quite dull and grey actually ☹ (and I didn’t even know she was gay until I read about it in the paper today) ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/9 "2009-01-27T17:03:49Z")
Dammit! We just elected a black president. Why you always gotta up us? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/10 "2009-01-27T17:18:31Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > Yep, Pim Fortuyn was right-wing and anti-immigrant Hm. For some reason I thought he was left-wing and anti-immigrant. ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/11 "2009-01-27T17:29:16Z")
well, it could happen, and he could also have been right-wing and not be anti-immigrant. ---
**Author:** ![Mike.V](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Mike.V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike.V)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/12 "2009-01-27T17:59:32Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Dammit! We just elected a black president. Why you always gotta up us? Let’s me and you meet for a beer in Reykjavik when Iceland elects a Black PM. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/13 "2009-01-27T18:28:59Z")
Fortuyn (the “proper” spelling) was rightist by Dutch standards, but my impression is that by American standard he would have been a moderate Democrat. Much of his “anti-immigrant” stance seems to have been connected to his dislike of practicing Muslims immigrating and in doing so shifting the moderately libertarian cultural milieu of the Netherlands, where, e.g., an openly gay dairy farmer was not seen as odd but as just another individual doing his own thing, to a more conservative and intrusive judging of one’s neighbors on the basis of what is supposedly God’s will, Islam-style. Admittedly I’m forming this impression on the basis of news stories and comments from selected Nederlanders, so I’ll welcome correction by people on the scene. One needs also to distinguish between Head of State (monarch, Governor General, President of a parliamentary republic) and Head of Government (Premier, Prime Minister, Reichskanzler, etc.). The U.S. is nearly unique in combining the two roles into a single office. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/14 "2009-01-27T18:37:16Z")
> [@Mike.V](#): > > Let’s me and you meet for a beer in Reykjavik when Iceland elects a Black PM. This got me cracking up! 😃 Iceland is (I’m guessing) one of the whitest countries there are. The only black people I’ve seen are the ones playing for the basketball teams. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/15 "2009-01-27T19:01:19Z")
A little off-topic: I know that in Iceland, “family name” doesn’t work like most other European languages. So, using the example of Johanna Sigurdardottir, what is the polite way of addressing her? PM Johanna? PM Sigurdardottir? PM Johanna Sigurdardottir? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/16 "2009-01-27T19:06:39Z")
> [@Mike.V](#): > > Let’s me and you meet for a beer in Reykjavik when Iceland elects a Black PM. We’ll have that beer. Hell, I’ll buy you, your family and all your friends a beer when the US elects an open, partnered lesbian of any color. We’ve got lots of them. ---
**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/17 "2009-01-27T19:14:24Z")
> [@Waffle\_Decider](#): > > A little off-topic: I know that in Iceland, “family name” doesn’t work like most other European languages. So, using the example of Johanna Sigurdardottir, what is the polite way of addressing her? PM Johanna? PM Sigurdardottir? PM Johanna Sigurdardottir? Definitely not PM Sigurdardottir (since that’s not her name, just a patronym). PM Johanna Sigurdardottir would be the way to go, or just PM Johanna. The President is known as Prez Olafur Ragnar. He just happens to be Grimsson (son of Grimur). The news are on right now and they just talk about Johanna. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/18 "2009-01-27T19:22:51Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > There’s probably some king or pope or other leader who was gay that we never knew about. King James I of England (and VI of Scotland) was allegedly openly and promiscuously homosexual. Prior to that, King Edward II of England was allegedly executed in 1327 [in the most hideous manner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II#Death) to punish his crime of sodomy: > [@](#): > > This savagery partly reflected hostility on the part of the Church and other opinion-makers to the king’s homosexuality and his favouritism towards his young French male lover… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/19 "2009-01-27T19:23:11Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Bertrand Delanoe, mayor of Paris, A fun element of the electoral campaign during which Delanoe was elected was to see his elderly old-school conservative opponent scrambling to attend gay events. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239/20 "2009-01-27T19:30:30Z")
> [@WormTheRed](#): > > This got me cracking up! 😃 > > Iceland is (I’m guessing) one of the whitest countries there are. The only black people I’ve seen are the ones playing for the basketball teams. Word. \*\*Nashiitashii \*\*'s mother used to refer to them as “koli-moli’s” (unsure of the spelling. I’m told that term is fairly rude, but she never saw a black person until she started dating her ex husband who was an American in the air force. Until that point, she thought they only lived in tribes in Africa. :eek: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iceland-gets-a-gay-pm-is-this-a-first/483239.md?page=2)