Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir has married her long-time partner as a new law legalising homosexual marriages came into force. Picture: AFP / Olivier MORIN

FROM: http://www.news.com.au/world/iceland-prime-minister-johanna-sigurdardottir-marries-her-partner-as-gay-marriage-legalized/story-e6frfkyi-1225885130209

ICELAND Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir married her long-time partner yesterday as a new law legalising homosexual marriages came into force.

Sigurdardottir, in her late 60s, formally married writer Jonina Leosdottir after the couple submitted a demand for their civil union to be transformed into a marriage, the RUV broadcaster said.

Iceland’s parliament on June 12 unanimously adopted legislation allowing gay marriage, in a law that came into effect on Sunday.

Homosexual couples could previously enter into a civil partnership and benefit from the same rights as heterosexual couples, but this had not been considered a formal marriage.

Sigurdardottir, born in 1942, took power in February 2009. She has lived with Ledsdottir, who is in her 50s, for several years and the couple entered a civil union in 2002.

She is the country’s first openly gay head of government.