Reykjavik Pride Festivities 2013

This week witnessed Reykjavik’s world famous Pride festivities, a series of events meant to celebrate and promote LGBT rights. This year, the U.S. Embassy was a recipient of the Festival’s Human Rights Award from Samtökin ‘78 for its work in raising the profile of LGBT rights in Iceland and the rest of the world. It was an honor to receive this award and we are deeply grateful to the organizers of these festivities. On Saturday, as it has become our tradition, we participated in the parade where we saw many of our friends lining the streets.

We also partnered with the organizers of Reykjavik Pride to screen two films.  At the beginning of the festivities, we screened “Brother Outsider:  The Life of Bayard Rustin.” At the final event on Sunday, we screened “Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement,” a moving story about a couple’s long struggle.  One of the stars of this film, Edie Windsor, launched a lawsuit that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.   The directors of this film, Susan Muska and Gréta Olafsdóttir participated in the screening and a discussion afterwards.  It was a full week that put on display the values shared by Icelanders and Americans and a demonstration of what our partnership can accomplish.