It's Unanimous: Iceland OK's Equal Marriage

Reuters:

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.

On Top:

Forty-nine of the country's 63 members of the Althingi parliament voted in favor of the law. The remainder abstained.  The legislation is groundbreaking in that it does not alter marriage to a gender-neutral institution, but instead includes “man and man” and “woman and woman” among the definitions of marriage.

The bill was introduced on March 23 and couples are expected to marry as early as this month. Marriage will replace Iceland's system of registered partnerships for gay and lesbian couples first enacted in 1996.

The legislation goes to President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson for his signature. Reports indicate the president will sign the bill into law.

And in Portugal, whose equal-marriage law came into effect last month, Agence France-Presse reports:

The first gay marriage in Portugal was celebrated Monday as a lesbian couple exchanged vows in a civil ceremony, one week after a law allowing same-sex unions went into force.

The divorced women, Helena Paixao, 40, and Teresa Pires, 33, were married in Lisbon before about 30 people.

The lesbians, who have two daughters from previous marriages and have been together for eight years, were also the first gay couple to submit a request to be married back in 2006, which launched the debate on legalising homosexual unions in Portugal, a predominantly Catholic country.

Same-sex marriage map of Europe (click here for the Wikipedia article): dark blue = equal marriage; medium blue = registered partnerships; yellow = under discussion; gray = not recognized; red = constitutional prohibition.

Canada and South Africa also recognize equal marriage nationwide.  New Zealand has civil unions, and Australian states extend limited rights to same-sex couples either through registered partnerships or unwed cohabition.

In Today's News

Guess you guys realize I don't have the time or the energy to keep up with every piece of gay-related news that happens; I'll leave that to the big dogs who are getting paid to blog, or have lots of helpers. But just for the record, here's a few recent news items worth remarking, in case you missed them:

* Iceland now boasts the world's first openly gay head of government - Johanna Sigurdardottir, who will be interim prime minister there until elections are held in May. Please do not book vacation tickets to Iceland, you know how God is about these things. Probably the whole island will sink to the bottom of the ocean, or something like that, now that the dreaded gayz are in charge. Wink.

* Australia, you may be surprised to learn, has had an openly gay High Court Justice (think supreme court over here) since 1996, Michael Kirby, who is now retiring at age 70 after a renowned and outspoken career as a jurist. Hmm. Gee, why is Australia still afloat after all these years? Wink.

* And I was certainly surprised to learn that Texas had an openly gay city court judge, John Paul Barnich, who passed away this week after serving on the bench from 1999 to 2007, when health problems forced him to retire. Apparently he was a good judge but quite a character, too. At his confirmation hearings before the city council, when asked how a gay judge would differ from a heterosexual judge, he responded that he would upgrade the courtroom’s sound system in order to play show tunes. Wink.

* Finally, today it just so happens that three state legislatures are considering important gay rights issues: the New Hampshire Marriage Equality bill, the Hawaii Civil Unions bill and Washington Domestic Partnership Expansion Bill of 2009. Hmm, wonder if the fundies are praying for a hat trick - film at 11. Wink.

* Oh and one more thing. Sadly, the Massachusetts couple whose 2003 court case led to this nation's first legal gay marriages, Julie and Hillary Goodridge, are getting a divorce. Pity.