Iceland's Lesbian Prime Minister to Retire

Johanna Sigurdardottir, the first openly gay or lesbian head of a national government, announced she will quit politics next year.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

September 28 2012 2:35 PM EST

November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST

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Iceland prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, the first out lesbian to head a national government, will retire from politics when the parliamentary term ends in April.

"There is a time for everything, also for my time in politics which has been long and eventful," she said in a statement on the website for her party, the Social Democrats. "Now I believe it is time for others to take the baton that was passed to me following the crash. I have therefore decided to leave political life at the end of this term."

"The crash" is a reference to the economic crisis of 2008, in which three of Iceland's banks failed and its currency dropped greatly in value. The nation received a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Sigurdardottir became prime minister in 2009, making her the first woman to hold that position in Iceland and the first openly gay or lesbian head of a national government, on anything other than an interim basis, anywhere in the world. A former flight attendant and trade union official, she was elected to Parliament in 1978 and later served as Iceland's minister for social affairs. She turns 70 next week.

As Sigurdardottir retires, Iceland's elected officials are debating whether the nation should join the European Union and adopt the euro as its currency, Reuters reports. It's unclear who will succeed her as leader of the Social Democrats.