Reykjavik Mayor wants the right to wed gays
Iceland has received a lot of attention from the world’s gay and lesbian community for several reasons. In 2010, with a unanimous parliament vote, Iceland was one of the first countries to fully legalize same-sex marriage. Registered partnerships had been allowed for some time before that. Iceland’s prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the world’s first openly lesbian head of government, was one of the first to marry under the new law.
However, Reykjavík’s mayor has received a lot of attention from the gay community despite not being gay. Jón Gnarr opened the Reykjavík gay pride festival last year in drag.
Following this stunt, Jón has repeatedly received requests from gay men asking him to wed them. Unfortunately he has had to deny them all, since mayors in Iceland have no such right. Currently it is only religious leaders, heads of police and captains at sea which have the right to wed couples.
He is now advocating for the law to be changed so that mayors and perhaps others can also do the service. He would then be happy to fulfill these wishes.
