My daughter, son-in-law, and I have been only half joking about moving to Iceland.  Frankly, Iceland is looking better and better every day. First they elect a lesbian prime minister who then gets married under Iceland’s new marriage law. 

Iceland Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir was among the first gay couples to marry Sunday as the country’s new gay marriage law came into force, the Iceland broadcaster RUV reported.

The gay marriage bill, introduced on March 23, was approved by 49 out of 63 members of the Althingi parliament on June 12. The remainder abstained, making the vote unanimous.

The legislation is groundbreaking in that it does not alter marriage to a gender-neutral institution, but instead includes “man and man” and “woman and woman” among the definitions of marriage.

Marriage replaces Iceland’s system of registered partnerships for gay and lesbian couples first enacted in 1996.

But I think this has sealed the deal.  Would that we could take a page or two out of this playbook.

Last month, in the depressed aftermath of the country’s financial collapse, the Best Party emerged as the biggest winner in Reykjavik’s elections, with 34.7 percent of the vote, and Mr. Gnarr — who also promised a classroom of kindergartners he would build a Disneyland at the airport — is now the fourth mayor in four years of a city that is home to more than a third of the island’s 320,000 people.

In his acceptance speech he tried to calm the fears of the other 65.3 percent. “No one has to be afraid of the Best Party,” he said, “because it is the best party. If it wasn’t, it would be called the Worst Party or the Bad Party. We would never work with a party like that.”

[...]

But as Mr. Gnarr settles into the mayor’s office, he does not seem to be kidding at all.

The Best Party, whose members include a who’s who of Iceland’s punk rock scene, formed a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (despite Mr. Gnarr’s suspicion that party leaders had assigned an underling to watch “The Wire” and take notes). With that, Mr. Gnarr took office last week, hoping to serve out a full, four-year term, and the new government granted free admission to swimming pools for everyone under 18. Its plans include turning Reykjavik, with its plentiful supply of geothermal energy, into a hub for electric cars.

Official Campaign Video

And in honor of the day —

This is an open thread.