Samtökin '78 is the national queer organisation of Iceland and has existed since 1978. It bought the house at Suðurgata 3 in 2014, and that building is the community home: it holds the Regnbogasalur, the Rainbow Hall, along with a counselling room and meeting space. Events, lectures, exhibitions and social evenings happen there.
What it offers is not what a bar offers. Free counselling for queer people, their families and professionals working with them. Legal advice on queer rights. Support groups. Youth work split across several age brackets, from ten-year-olds up to thirty. Help for queer refugees and people seeking asylum. Much of this runs in Icelandic, but the organisation works in English as well and keeps information in several languages.
The administrative office is at a second address, on the fourth floor of Tjarnargata 4, in use since spring 2025. Suðurgata 3 remains the community building.
The people in this picture are AI-generated.
