Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Síða 14

Iceland Falls Behind In
Queer Rights... Again
Legal protections ranking slips for second year in a row

Words: Paul Fontaine
Photo: Art Bicnick
NEWS To many people around the
world, Iceland is a bastion of queer
rights, with oft-cited examples such
as having elected an openly lesbian
Prime Minister and legalised same-
sex marriage, among other acco-
lades. While all this is true, there are
now signs that Iceland is falling be-
hind when it comes to queer rights.
GayIceland reported that, ac-
cording to a 2017 review by ILGA-
Europe, Iceland now ranks 16th in
the world—tied with Greece—when
it comes to queer rights, down two
points from the year previous.
Kitty Anderson, the Interna-
tional Secretariat for the queer
organisation of Iceland, Sam-
tökin ’78, and chairperson of In-
tersex Iceland, is not surprised.
“We do have full marriage equal-
ity here in Iceland, but we still do
not have automatic co-parent rec-
ognition,” she explained. “We do
have legal provisions so same-sex
couples can adopt, but Iceland does
not have an adoption agreement
with any country that will adopt to
a same-sex couple, and adoptions
are very rare within in Iceland do-
mestically. So, de facto, gay men
can not adopt. Lesbians do have
access to fertility treatments, but
must go through degrading bureau-
cratic processes to be both recog-
nised as parents.”
Ic e l a nd w a s
weakest on the
points of pros-
ecuting for hate
crime and hate
s p e e c h . W h i le
Iceland does have
l a w s a g a i n s t
these things, they
are broadly open
t o i nt er pr e t a -
tion, and recent
c o u r t r u l i n g s
on hate speech
have invariably found in fa-
v o u r o f t h e d e f e n d a n t s .
W hile most Icelanders are
fairly tolerant of the queer com-
munity, Kitty says, this does not
mean that everyone is, and this
leaves a lot of people vulnerable.
“Especially equality and non-
discrimination and hate crime
and hate speech, we at Samtökin
get various informal complaints
brought to us where we get infor-
mation about things taking place,”
Kitty said. “So we know that there
are things going on which are basi-
cally unmeasurable because there
is no legislation in place that gives
access to mechanisms where you
can actually complain properly.”
The matter doesn’t just affect Ice-
landic citizens, either: queer asylum
seekers are especially vulnerable.
“We used to have two solid points
there and lost them purely due to
the fact that we have no knowledge
of any positive measure that was
taken in 2016,”
Kitty explained.
“ E v e r y q u e e r
a s ylu m seeker
who has come to
Iceland that has
contacted us is
either still here
waiting or has
been deported.
There isn’t any
p osit ive st or y
this year when it
comes to queer
asylum seekers.”
Kitty is not especially optimis-
tic that Iceland will turn things
around, citing UN obligations that
Iceland has accepted and yet hasn’t
implemented. The ball is now in the
court of the Icelandic government to
not only honour its obligations, but
to update its legislation to be more
in keeping with a changing world.
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2017
Words: Alice Demurtas
Share this article: gpv.is/tc07
TIME CAPSULE The Parliament Hall
and its iconic cerulean walls have
stood the test of time since 1881.
Despite the absence of opulent dé-
cor, the Hall still exudes grandeur
even in its minimal appearance.
As I look around I tip my meta-
phorical hat to the genius in-
terior desig ner who d raped
powder-blue curtains around
t h e w i n d o w s , e n p e n d a n t
with the blue and mint walls.
Nobody is here, but it isn’t hard
to envision through a sepia fil-
ter a group of bearded minis-
ters sitting on the three sym-
metrica l ly arranged rows of
chairs that have replaced the
original Danish stools. A single
Icelandic f lag sits in a corner.
As I turn to the Speaker’s high
desk I’m sure of one thing: there
may have been fewer women back
in 1881, and I don’t suppose any of
the MPs stored money in Panama,
but not much else has altered
since, under the lime plaster dé-
cor of these high ivory ceilings.
Parliament Hall
In case you're wondering what
kind of blue that is, it's cerulean.
Photo by Art Bicnick
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“Every queer
asylum seeker
who has come to
Iceland that has
contacted us is
either still here
waiting or has
been deported.”