| Erling Lae | |
| Office: | Governor of Vestfold |
| Term Start: | 1 June 2010 |
| Term End: | 30 June 2016 |
| Primeminister: | Jens Stoltenberg Erna Solberg |
| Predecessor: | Mona Røkke |
| Successor: | Per Arne Olsen |
| Office1: | Second Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party |
| Term Start1: | 27 April 2008 |
| Term End1: | 9 May 2010 |
| Predecessor1: | Jan Tore Sanner |
| Successor1: | Bent Høie |
| Office2: | Governing Mayor of Oslo |
| Term Start2: | 29 November 2000 |
| Term End2: | 29 September 2009 |
| 1Blankname2: | Mayor |
| 1Namedata2: | Per Ditlev-Simonsen Svenn Kristiansen Fabian Stang |
| Deputy2: | Hilde Barstad Peter N. Myhre Sylvi Listhaug |
| Predecessor2: | Fritz Huitfeldt |
| Successor2: | Stian Berger Røsland |
| Office3: | Oslo City Commissioner of the Elderly and Districts |
| 1Blankname3: | Governing Mayor |
| 1Namedata3: | Fritz Huitfeldt |
| Term Start3: | 15 January 1997 |
| Term End3: | 29 November 2000 |
| Predecessor3: | Torild Lien Utvik |
| Successor3: | Bård Folke Fredriksen |
| Birth Date: | 16 March 1947 |
| Birth Place: | Oslo, Norway |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Spouse: | Jens 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 condemned gay pride parades in the city centre, along with the government of Lithuania passing a law banning "homosexual advertising".[8]