Yesterday Snorri Óskarsson, a middle-aged middle school teacher in the North Icelandic town of Akureyri was sent home on six months paid leave because of his anti-gay blog.
Akureyri. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
The member of Iceland’s Pentecostalism church has been particularly active and vocal on his personal blog describing gay people as equally guilty and sinful as bank robbers. Or worse. Homosexuality is such a sin, Snorri argued, that the punishment for it is death.
Parents of his students called for action, stating that that this was not a person suitable for teaching their children the difference between right and wrong.
This is not the first time that Snorri has made headlines for his anti-gay propaganda; in 2010 he got a warning from the Akureyri town council, after similar blog entries.
This time, action was taken. Yesterday the town council called him to a meeting, informing him that he would be suspended from his position for six months.
“I will use this paid leave to blog, and bring the true word of God to the masses,” Snorri told visir.is. “That is my constitutional right.”
Less than 1,000 Icelanders are active members of the Pentecostalism church.
Iceland’s Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is openly lesbian, making her the world’s first openly gay leader of a nation. She is married to writer Jónína Leósdóttir.
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