PM is a Lesbian - The Icelander are progressive.

[kittyboy]

If this was posted earlier I missed it and appologize for the additional posting.

A couple of months back I read that Iceland had appointed a new PM. Embedded in the article was a passing reference that she was a lesbian. I thought it was interesting that her being a lesbian was not a bigger news story... but of course we are talking about Iceland which has the population of a mid-sized US city. In the US the mayor of Portland, Oregon was openly gay and he did not get much press. Or at least he did not get much press untill it was discovered that he had had an affair with a young staffer (possibly when the boy was under the age of consent - but the details are shaky). Oh...My.

Here are a couple of links that give more details.


http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Icel ... -6243.aspx (http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Iceland_gets_lesbian_PM-6243.aspx)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3han ... %C3%B3ttir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3hanna_Sigur%C3%B0ard%C3%B3ttir)

Considering the impact that the banking crisis has had on them, I'd imagine that they have bigger things to worry about.

I'd imagine that they have bigger things to worry about.
Rubbish. Just imagine Obama turns out to be a bottom and that our Brandon with his "safest unsafe sex" is his master. Nobody cares for lesbians, nobody cares for Rice on Bean or Bean on Rice. There is no bigger thing than a Cock In Action. And a presidential "beneficiary".

[kittyboy]

Considering the impact that the banking crisis has had on them, I'd imagine that they have bigger things to worry about.

I supect you are correct. Their economy is in the shitter so they don't care if their PM is grooming the shag carpet of her lover in the PMs offical residence.

I find it to be a bit remarkable though that is did not get more press.
I guess Iceland is such a small country that it does not rate much press in general.
However, I do think it would be sweet if Iceland's PM got invited to a state dinner somewhere and toted her lebian lover along.

Maybe the two of them and Angela Merkel could have a girls night out in Berlin. Tarja Halonen could go along as Angela's date.

[Khor tose]

Considering the impact that the banking crisis has had on them, I'd imagine that they have bigger things to worry about.
I supect you are correct. Their economy is in the shitter so they don't care if their PM is grooming the shag carpet of her lover in the PMs offical residence.
I find it to be a bit remarkable though that is did not get more press.
I guess Iceland is such a small country that it does not rate much press in general.
However, I do think it would be sweet if Iceland's PM got invited to a state dinner somewhere and toted her lebian lover along.
Maybe the two of them and Angela Merkel could have a girls night out in Berlin. Tarja Halonen could go along as Angela's date.

Knowing many American Islanders (their spelling) I am not the least surprised that they would elect a lesbian, and I think the bank failure had very little to do with it. Remember even Jules Verne in the mid 19th century commented on how intelligent and well read all the icelanders are. In "Journey to The Center of The Earth" we have the following passages.

"In the first place M. Fridrikssen wanted to know what success my uncle had had at the library."
"Your library! why there is nothing but a few tattered books upon almost deserted shelves."
"Indeed!" replied M. Fridrikssen, "why we possess eight thousand volumes, many of them valuable and scarce, works in the old Scandinavian language, and we have all the novelties that Copenhagen sends us every year."
"Where do you keep your eight thousand volumes? For my part - "
"Oh, M. Liedenbrock, they are all over the country. In this icy region we are fond of study. There is not a farmer nor a fisherman that cannot read and does not read. Our principle is, that books, instead of growing mouldy behind an iron grating, should be worn out under the eyes of many readers. Therefore, these volumes are passed from one to another, read over and over, referred to again and again; and it often happens that they find their way back to their shelves only after an absence of a year or two."
"And in the meantime," said my uncle rather spitefully, "strangers - "
"Well, what would you have? Foreigners have their libraries at home, and the first essential for labouring people is that they should be educated. I repeat to you the love of reading runs in Icelandic blood. In 1816 we founded a prosperous literary society; learned strangers think themselves honoured in becoming members of it. It publishes books which educate our fellow-countrymen, and do the country great service. If you will consent to be a corresponding member, Herr Liedenbrock, you will be giving us great pleasure."

[kittyboy]

Considering the impact that the banking crisis has had on them, I'd imagine that they have bigger things to worry about.
I supect you are correct. Their economy is in the shitter so they don't care if their PM is grooming the shag carpet of her lover in the PMs offical residence.
I find it to be a bit remarkable though that is did not get more press.
I guess Iceland is such a small country that it does not rate much press in general.
However, I do think it would be sweet if Iceland's PM got invited to a state dinner somewhere and toted her lebian lover along.
Maybe the two of them and Angela Merkel could have a girls night out in Berlin. Tarja Halonen could go along as Angela's date.

Knowing many American Islanders (their spelling) I am not the least surprised that they would elect a lesbian, and I think the bank failure had very little to do with it. Remember even Jules Verne in the mid 19th century commented on how intelligent and well read all the icelanders are. In "Journey to The Center of The Earth" we have the following passages.

"In the first place M. Fridrikssen wanted to know what success my uncle had had at the library."
"Your library! why there is nothing but a few tattered books upon almost deserted shelves."
"Indeed!" replied M. Fridrikssen, "why we possess eight thousand volumes, many of them valuable and scarce, works in the old Scandinavian language, and we have all the novelties that Copenhagen sends us every year."
"Where do you keep your eight thousand volumes? For my part - "
"Oh, M. Liedenbrock, they are all over the country. In this icy region we are fond of study. There is not a farmer nor a fisherman that cannot read and does not read. Our principle is, that books, instead of growing mouldy behind an iron grating, should be worn out under the eyes of many readers. Therefore, these volumes are passed from one to another, read over and over, referred to again and again; and it often happens that they find their way back to their shelves only after an absence of a year or two."
"And in the meantime," said my uncle rather spitefully, "strangers - "
"Well, what would you have? Foreigners have their libraries at home, and the first essential for labouring people is that they should be educated. I repeat to you the love of reading runs in Icelandic blood. In 1816 we founded a prosperous literary society; learned strangers think themselves honoured in becoming members of it. It publishes books which educate our fellow-countrymen, and do the country great service. If you will consent to be a corresponding member, Herr Liedenbrock, you will be giving us great pleasure."

I know very little about Iceland. I was being toungue in cheek snarky. I know that it has a very small population with a very homogenious people in terms of background and culture. So maybe being gay is just not an issue there.

I think these kind of non event events should be recognized by gays and lesbians around the world. Progress is being made toward GL equality. See another thread in this section about India. I may be delusional but I believe the world is becoming a better place.

[Khor tose]

I know very little about Iceland. I was being toungue in cheek snarky.

Tongue and cheek, snarky huh. Yes, gays are more accepted everywhere in the world. However, once we are all out of the closet and known to our neighbors, then the world depression will start to really impact all of us. Soon people will be eating people, and I hear that gays are far more tender then straight males. :clown:

Did not take any offense, and neither would any of the Islanders I know. Oddly, there are more Icelanders in the new world then Iceland. Big colonies in Winnipeg, Canada, North Dakota and northern Washington state. The really strange thing is that, even if they do not know each other personally, they still know how each of them is related by kin with the next one. It is really weird to see two Icelanders get together and in five minute know who each others family is, and how they are related.

[Art]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Ulk%2C_Berlin%2C_November_1_1907-_From_--_Derri%C3%A8re_lui.jpg

The Eulenburg affair (1907-1909) had been widely exploited to ridicule ┬╗le vice allemand┬л, the rampant homosexuality in the entourage of Wilhelm II. The journalist Maximilian Harden, who had triggered the scandal, later realised his blunder.
Adolf Hitler became chancellor in a severe and not only economic crisis. He did not dare to continue his homosexual lifestyle, fearing further blackmail and exposition (Lothar Machtan). He went through two women for his disguise, Angela Raubal (suicide at the age of 23 with Hitler's gun, September 1931) and Eva Braun (attempted suicides 1932 and 1935, marriage on 29 April 1945, suicide at the age of 33 on 30 April 1945). And the pink triangle is unforgotten. So much for that.

http://www.iomoon.com/snaefells.jpg

In the North, people read a lot, or they drink a lot, or they think a lot. Are they more tolerant than others? Because they are secular or Lutheran? Or just politically more correct? Countries with a small population are undoubtedly more open to change, and they lead the way to render possible adultery for same-sex couples.



Sigur├░ard├│ttirтАЩs spouse is J├│n├нna Le├│sd├│ttir, born May 16th 1954, author and playwright. Sigur├░ard├│ttirтАЩs children are Sigur├░ur Egill, born 1972, and Dav├н├░ Steinar, born 1977. Le├│sd├│ttirтАЩs son is Gunnar Hrafn, born 1981.
http://eng.forsaetisraduneyti.is/minister/cv/

Should all prospective gays and lesbians marry and get children, then divorce and call themselves gays and lesbians? An interesting couple, no doubt. And two cases for the Kinsey scale.
We wish them and all Icelanders well!

http://www.queerty.com/wp/docs/2008/10/progressivecover.gif



I may be delusional but I believe the world is becoming a better place.
Sadly, no. Mao, Stalin, Hitler, two world wars тАУ some things become better, others worse.



┬╗Yet the utopian faith in a future condition of harmony is a Christian inheritance, and so is the modern idea of progress.┬л (21) ┬╗In a different idiom, liberal humanists have talked of humanity advancing, inch by inch, in a gradual process of improvement. In all these accounts history is told as a coherent narrative, and nothing is more threatening than the idea that it is a meandering flux without purpose or direction.┬л (204)
John Gray. Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia. New York, 2007.

A little thought experiment. The monarch or prime minister of one of these northern countries has a humble request, deriving not from the court of Rama IV but from a Japanese story:



Saikaku's most memorable character, the Casanova-like merchant Yonosuke (short for Ukiyonosuke), patronizes both male and female brothels. He reaches age fifty-four having dallied with 3.742 women and 725 young men, numbers that probably represent the sexual fantasies of many men of the time. Although Yonosuke's sexual history is of heroic proportions, he is merely a contemporary man-about-town writ large. It is altogether possible that one trip to the nanshoku teahouse per five to the courtesan brothel may have been the standard routine of many a wealthy urban rake. (97) Gary P. Leupp. Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995

Our monarch or prime minister does not care for monogamy. He simply wants to enjoy total sexual freedom within the boundaries of the law. There is a taster, and escort agencies are involved. Holidays in Thailand, needless to say. Our humble comrade is content with only five boys and one girl at a time (5:1).

Are the people of the North really tolerant? Or just God-fearing ┬╗progressive┬л prudes?

[Khor tose]

Are the people of the North really tolerant? Or just God-fearing ┬╗progressive┬л prudes?

Really tolerant.

There is progress! Kittyboy turns out to be an exceptionally gifted formatter! Look at his quote from mlomker. Perfect! Hope I didn't insult mlomker with my "rubbish". He is one of the good guys here, no doubt. But I still think it's too early in the century for a declared bottom in a high political position. Rice? In the closet. With or without economic crisis.