Rick Perry (left) and Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson (right). (Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson/ Facebook)

The gay minister for the environment and natural resources in Iceland called out the US secretary of energy for his anti-gay views during a meeting last week.

Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson and Rick Perry met on Thursday, October 10, when Perry visited Iceland to attend the Arctic Circle Assembly.

Guðbrandsson said they discussed international cooperation on the climate crisis and the importance of the US rejoining the Paris Agreement, but the gay Icelandic minister also criticised Perry’s anti-gay stance.

On his Facebook page, Guðbrandsson wrote: “At the end of the meeting, I expressed my strong opposition toward his enactment of a law that made same-sex marriage illegal in Texas.

“I told him I am gay and that authorities are, to a large extent, responsible for enacting such a law – that they cannot simply justify it as being the result of a public vote.

“Perry has, among other things, compared homosexuality to alcoholism and is opposed to enabling same-sex couples to adopt children.”

Perry led the charge against gay people being allowed to serve in the military, releasing a notorious ad while running for president in 2012 claiming there’s “something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas”.

He also previously defended a Texas ban on same-sex couples adopting and, according to the Human Rights Campaign, said he would support a federal measure to stop LGBT+ families adopting.

According to Time Magazine, in his 2008 book On My Honor, Perry compared homosexuality with alcoholism.

He wrote: “Even if an alcoholic is powerless over alcohol once it enters his body, he still makes a choice to drink.

“And, even if someone is attracted to a person of the same sex, he or she still makes a choice to engage in sexual activity with someone of the same gender.”