Move aside, Mario! Iceland gets a real Rainbow Road for Pride
A road in Iceland’s capital city of Reykjavik has been painted with a huge rainbow, ahead of the city’s Pride parade.
Ahead of the city’s Pride event, which is set to take place this weekend, local residents came together to help decorate the city centre for the parade.
Rainbow roads usually live in the nightmares of Mario Kart fans.
According to the BBC, even the city’s Mayor, Dagur Eggertsson, took part.
He described it on Facebook as “more powerful and beautiful” than he ever imagined, thanking the organisers of Pride.
The Mayor added: “This is one way to make our city livelier, more human and simply a better place by great collaboration and beautiful thinking.”
Reykjavik Pride director Eva Maria Thorarinsdottir Lange told the BBC: “It was lovely. A large number of children lent us a hand and some even brought their own paint brushes.”
Iceland has a population of just 329,100 – but is ahead of most of Europe when it comes to LGBT rights.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Iceland since June 2010, when its Parliament passed it with zero votes against, and overwhelming public support.
The country’s former Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, became the world’s first openly lesbian head of government on 1 February 2009.
When same-sex marriage was legalised in Iceland, the politician and her partner Jónína converted their civil union into a marriage, becoming one of the first couples in Iceland to do so.
