Gay Igloo Recipient (January 2009)

Svend Robinson born March 4, 1952 is a Canadian politician, Canada's first openly gay elected official and a prominent activist for gay rights. He was a MP in the Canada House of Commons from 1979 until 2004, when he resigned after confessing to committing a theft. He unsuccessfully sought to return to the House in 2006.

Robinson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota of Danish descent to Edith Jensen and Wayne Robinson. His father opposed the Vietnam War and brought his family to live in Canada. Under the dual-citizenship provisions of U.S. law, Robinson remains an American. He obtained a law degree from the University of BC and completed post-graduate work at the London School of Economics. In 1972, he married his high-school girlfriend, but they divorced after he told her about his sexual orientation. Robinson was the New Democratic Party (NDP) MP for ridings in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, British Columbia, the third-largest city in the province. As the longest-serving British Columbia MP of his time, in office from 1979 to 2004, Svend Robinson is also notable for having been the first MP to out himself as gay in 1988. Robinson ran to succeed Audrey McLaughlin as leader of the NDP at the 1995 NDP Leadership Convention, but withdrew in favour of Alexa McDonough after the first ballot even though he had received the most votes.

He has been a prominent gay activist throughout most of his adult life.