Since first recognizing same-sex couples as domestic partners in 1996, Iceland has taken increasing steps to further gay and lesbian equality, in 2006, passing laws guaranteeing the same social rights as heterosexuals to lesbian and gay men in the spheres of social security, taxation, labor, and other social services including the same access to adoption as heterosexuals who are married or in registered domestic partnerships.

On March 23, Iceland’s openly lesbian prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardóttir, presented a revision to current marriage law to the Icelandic parliament to permit same-sex marriage.  The revision is widely expected to become law, and when it does, the first same-sex marriages could happen as early as June 27, 2010, the date of Gay Pride in the capital city of Reykjavík.