Erling Lae

Erling Lae
Lae in 2007
Governor of Vestfold
In office
1 June 2010 – 30 June 2016
MonarchHarald V
Prime MinisterJens Stoltenberg
Erna Solberg
Preceded byMona Røkke
Succeeded byPer Arne Olsen
Second Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party
In office
27 April 2008 – 9 May 2010
LeaderErna Solberg
Preceded byJan Tore Sanner
Succeeded byBent Høie
Governing Mayor of Oslo
In office
29 November 2000 – 29 September 2009
DeputyHilde Barstad
Peter N. Myhre
Sylvi Listhaug
MayorPer Ditlev-Simonsen
Svenn Kristiansen
Fabian Stang
Preceded byFritz Huitfeldt
Succeeded byStian Berger Røsland
Oslo City Commissioner of the Elderly and Districts
In office
15 January 1997 – 29 November 2000
Governing MayorFritz Huitfeldt
Preceded byTorild Lien Utvik
Succeeded byBård Folke Fredriksen
Personal details
Born (1947-03-16) 16 March 1947 (age 77)
Oslo, Norway
Political partyConservative
SpouseJens Torstein Olsen

Erling Lae (born 16 March 1947) is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party.

He was born in Oslo, is a cand.philol. by education and formerly worked as a journalist. From 1981 to 1985 he was a political advisor in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Administration. He was elected to Oslo city council in 1991, and was a city commissioner between 1997 and 2000. From 2000 to 2009 he was the governing mayor of Oslo. As such he headed the executive branch of the city government in the capital city of Norway.[1]

He was a deputy leader of the Conservative Party from 2008 to 2010.[1] In 2010 he was announced as the new county governor of Vestfold, succeeding Mona Røkke.[2] He was succeeded in June 2016 by second deputy leader of the Progress Party, Per Arne Olsen.[3]

Lae is openly gay,[4] and was named as the most powerful homosexual man in Norway three years in a row by queer website Gaysir, in 2006 through 2008.[5] He is married to Jens Torstein Olsen, a Lutheran minister,[6] with whom he had lived for 26 years before same-sex marriage was legalized in Norway in 2009.[7] In June later that year, Lae and his husband travelled to Vilnius, Lithuania to protest after Vilnius Mayor Vilius Navickas [de; lt] condemned gay pride parades in the city centre, along with the government of Lithuania passing a law banning "homosexual advertising".[8]

  1. ^ a b Lauritsen, Vibeke (2021). "Erling Lae". In Tvedt, Knut Are (ed.). Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian Nynorsk). Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
  2. ^ Ulrichsen, Henrik (12 March 2010). "Erling Lae ny fylkesmann". Tønsbergs Blad (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 15 March 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  3. ^ "Per Arne Olsen ny fylkesmann i Vestfold" [Per Arne Olsen new county governor of Vestfold]. Norwegian News Agency (in Norwegian Bokmål). 3 June 2016. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016 – via Adresseavisen.
  4. ^ Mo, Ida Svingen (18 June 2007). "Lae hyllet i Berlin". Dagsavisen (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 10 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  5. ^ Ghabel Lunde, Mina (25 January 2008). "- Norges mektigste homse" [- Norway's most powerful homosexual man]. NRK (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 5 April 2022.
  6. ^ Henriksen, Marianne (15 December 2010). "Baker jula inn" [Baking for Christmas]. Byavisa Sandefjord. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
  7. ^ Trellevik, Amund (11 June 2008). "Glad kjærligheten ikke lenger blir rangert" [Delighted love no longer being ranked]. Aftenposten (in Norwegian Bokmål). Archived from the original on 5 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Мэр Осло в знак протеста привез в Литву мужа-гея" [Oslo mayor brings gay husband to protest in Lithuania]. Lenta.ru (in Russian). 22 June 2009. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016.