Iceland greets Mike Pence with entourage of Pride flags for his anti-LGBT stand
The undercurrents in the United States' relations with Europe are getting stronger with each passing day. While President Donald Trump's frequent political and strategic clashes with European allies and platforms like the NATO are not new, his deputy Mike Pence recently had a unique, but uncomfortable outing in Iceland during his visit on Wednesday, September 4. This time, the reason was more politic-cultural.
Pence became the first American vice-president to visit the island-nation since George H W Bush, also a Republican, went there in 1983. Iceland has a special place in the history of the Cold War as it was the summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik, the country’s capital, in October 1986, that had paved the way for the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union the following year.
Iceland's officials were left utterly surprised to see the amount of military preparation the American side had put in to ensure Pence's safety. Helicopters hovered over the government building where Pence met Icelandic officials while snipers took positions on neighboring rooftops.
A nation of only 350,000 people, Iceland is known to be one of the most peaceful countries in the world. Amid the busy moves, Pence was in for a surprising welcome.
LGBT flags flutter
As Pence reached the historic Hofdi House in Reykjavik where the famous Reagan-Gorbachev summit had taken place, rainbow flags were seen fluttering in the wind in a row outside the venue where Pence met Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson.
"We just felt the need to celebrate diversity today and wanted to show that by flying the flags," Aegir Mar Porisson, director of IT company Advania which is located just opposite to the Hofdi House, was quoted as saying by Iceland’s news website Monitor. The company's own flags were replaced with the Pride ones and though Porisson did not clarify why that day of Pence was chosen, it was easy not to miss the point.
Even the nearby headquarters of the Efling trade union saw its flags changed to the rainbow ones, reported the Guardian. Bloomberg's White House Correspondent Justin Sink pointed out that Johannesson and his wife First Lady Eliza Reid wore rainbow bracelets during their meeting with Pence.
But why were the people of Iceland so eager to put up the rainbow colors? It has been said that Pence's opposition to same-sex marriage and the opinion that it indicates "societal collapse" is the reason.
A devout Christian, Pence has backed anti-LGBT policies in the past, including the abolition of a law that stopped openly gay people from serving in the US Army. During his term as governor of Indiana, Pence had let known his opposition to a bill that sought to ban discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual orientation.
Last year, Pence also became the first vice-president to speak at the openly anti-LGBT Family Research Council's annual meeting. Johannesson also wore the same rainbow bracelet during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin who is also known to have an anti-LGBT mind.
As Sink said in his tweet, a local government official was disappointed with the current US administration for having pulled out from the INF Treaty that had emerged from the historic Reykjavik Summit. No wonder, like the rest of continental Europe, Iceland is not too impressed with the US leadership of today.