Nicked from the Hand Mirror, who got the story from No Right Turn – hattips all round:
Next week Iceland’s going to get not only it’s first female Prime Minister, but also the first openly homosexual leader in the world.
And apparently the Icelanders are surprised that other people think this is a big deal. Here’s one such Icelander writing at The Huffington Post:
This small North Atlantic nation was the first to elect a female head of state when Vigdis Finnbogadottir became its 4th president in 1980. Although that event was widely publicized at the time, Ms. Sigurdardottir’s appointment has been met with general apathy both inside and outside the country.I guess I still have the attitude of most Icelanders when it comes to matters of sexual issues, because I failed to pick up on the newsworthiness of Sigurdardottir’s sexual orientation. “Oh, vow,” said an American friend of mine, “that’s really something! First openly gay world leader!”
Huh? Why, who cares? Even after living in America all these years, where hounding politicians into surrealistic hell about their private lives is the norm, it didn’t really ring bells for me. “I don’t see what her sexual orientation has to do with anything,” my mother told me yesterday. “It’s no one’s business but her own.”
It’s good to celebrate when barriers fall. And I look forward to the day when the walls are so stomped into the ground that we don’t even notice them anymore, as a friend of the above writer puts it:
“Johanna is very smart and not afraid to tackle difficult issues, and I think she can unite us,” my friend added. “Reasonable, sane people are not going to care about people’s gender or color. They just want the best person for the job.”
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