Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2009, Page 44

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2009
Dining | Lunch
Activities | Historic walks
When I first heard about the gay history
walk, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. In
all honesty I didn’t really think there were
that many places relevant to gay history
in a burgh as small as Reykjavík. Boy
was I wrong.
What I learned on the one-hour
walk was that Reykjavík is sprawling
with significant gay history sites, buried
beneath decades of conservative history
writing.
‘But what is the gay history walk?’
you ask. Let me tell you. It is an annual
sightseeing walk through Reykjavík that
takes you through sites and locations
significant to the history of gay culture
and the gay rights struggle in Iceland.
Upon showing up at Ingólfsstræti, I
was surprised to see how many people
had actually showed up for the walk. A
hundred and ten, to be exact. That’s a
lot of people. Standing there amidst the
crowd was a rather small man dressed in
civil attire, a cheap flower lei around his
neck, shouting out to the people that the
show was about to start. That was the
walk’s conductor, professor of political
science Baldur Þórhallsson.
What I learned more and more was
that many buildings I had previously
not taken any notice of seem to have
a great significance in the gay history
of Reykjavík. One of the reasons
probably being that in the early years
of Samtökin 78—the National Queer
Organisation—they had to move location
quite frequently, since very few were
willing to rent space to the organisation.
Their first headquarters were located at
Garðarstræti 2, which is a very simple
apartment building near Ingólfsstræti.
Gays have had to fight diligently for
their rights in Reykjavík, and it wasn’t
until 1987 that Samtökin 78 started to
receive public funding. In what came
as a surprise to some, it was actually
Iceland’s former Prime Minister, then
mayor of Reykjavík Davíð Oddsson, who
administered the funding.
One of the more interesting
characters Baldur told of about during
the walk was Þórður Sigtryggsson,
a flamboyant homosexual who had
his heyday during Reykjavík’s more
conservative era. This is a man I
have never heard of before, although
he shared a fellowship with some
of Iceland’s most famous artists at
Unuhús. There he drank coffee with the
likes Halldór Laxness and Þórbergur
Þórðarson, two of Iceland’s most beloved
writers. Over drinks, Þórður used to
tell the residents of Unuhús tales of his
active sex life and his many partners,
who apparently span some of the most
very important men and women in the
history of Reykjavík. Elías Mar, a famous
Icelandic poet, wrote his biography
together but they are yet to be released,
as to this day his stories and their
revelations of well-known Icelanders and
their sexual preferences seem to cause
outrage.
The walk also brought new
perspectives to old historical events that
are rarely thought of as relevant to gay
history.
There were, for instance, the
times of WWII when British and
American soldiers inhabited the
country. Thousands upon thousands of
uniformed soldiers swarmed the young
city’s nightlife, and the men of Iceland
screamed bloody murder as the girls
swooned at their advances. In our history
books, the only thing mentioned about
this is the fear every man in Iceland
harboured of losing his wife to a soldier.
They never mention what a euphoric
fantasy world this must have being for a
gay man in Reykjavík. “A friend of mine
that now resides in a retirement home
always talks of these times with tears in
his eyes,” proclaimed Baldur.
Notable by its absence was the
lesbian input in the walk. Of course,
history has been written by men that
are reluctant enough to put gay men in
history books, let alone gay women. Or
as Baldur explained: “Men in older times
hadn’t even thought of the notion that
two women could be together.
Probably every city in the world has
a similar history. A hidden one, of people
who weren’t accepted in their societies,
and had to find ways to live their lives
knowing they were part of a group that
was not accepted. I learned afterwards
that some of the things mentioned in the
walk were historical gems due to how
unattainable they are. You wouldn’t be
able to find most of these facts when
just merely browsing, you would have to
look deeper, conduct interviews, talk to
people.
This gay walk wasn’t just
entertaining; it was also sort of a
revelation.
Catharine Fulton:
Hey Louder!
What should we
have for lunch
today?
Rebecca Louder: Hey Fulton! Let’s go
to Nonnabiti!
Fulton got the prawn sub,
substituting mushrooms for green
peppers and adding pickles to the
bunch. Everything is good with salted
pork.
Louder opted for the beef
and cheese sub, with lettuce and
pickled red peppers – though she
couldn’t really taste the cheese.
Disappointment.
CF: I’ve never had Nonnabiti sober,
this is going to be quite the test.
RL: Me neither, actually. I’ve eaten it
once and I was really hammered.
CF: It’s a convenient place to come
drunk. I loves me some salted pork!
RL: Is that what it is?
CF: It’s pork.
RL: I thought it was ham.
CF: It’s pork. Same animal.
RL: Same magical animal! How can
one animal produce so many good
meats?
CF: You know what else it produces?
Since pigs don’t sweat, butchers will
sometimes cut into an exploding ball
of puss and mucus trapped inside the
f lesh.
RL: This is really good conversation for
eating.
CF: I loves me some salted pork.
RL: I’m glad I’m eating beef right now.
CF: I don’t like beef.
RL: Do they have pumpkins here?
CF: mm-mm (that’s ‘no’ with a mouth
full of Nonnabiti)
RL: Then how the hell would I make
pumpkin pie? Do they have canned
pumpkin?
CF: mm-mm (also ‘no’ with a mouth
full of Nonnabiti)
RL: Damnit!
CF: You’d have to settle for sweet potato
pie in that case.
RL: Motherfuck…
CF: Have you ever had it?
RL: Actually, sweet potato pie is
delicious.
CF: It tastes the same as pumpkin pie,
with spices and shit.
RL: Lots of cinnamon.
CF: Yup.
RL: Lots of whipped cream.
CF: Yeah. As every pumpkin-slash-
sweet potato pie should have.
RL: Uh-huh!
CF: A little bit of nutmeg. Some all
spice, if you will. Moist, buttery crust.
RL: Why aren’t we having that right
now?
At this point in the conversation
we developed an elaborate business
plan that may very well lead us to
great riches. Keep an eye on us; we’re
moving on to bigger and better things.
Things that involve pumpkins.
CF: I’ve hit a wall.
RL: I’m hitting a wall too. It’s not the
same when you’re not drunk. There’s
something about alcohol that gives you
a completely hollow leg and you can
just pack food in there until you don’t
know what’s what. But when you’re
sober you know your limits and you
don’t have to eat the full twelve inches
of Nonnabiti sandwich.
CF: Thirty centimetres. I shouldn’t
have gotten the carbonated beverage
with my sandwich, it’s taking up too
much space in my stomach.
RL: Carbonated beverages actually
make more space in your stomach.
CF: Liar.
RL: It’s true.
CF: Really!? Huh.
Super Canadian Verdict:
It’s no poutine, eh, but it’ll get ‘er done
after a 2-4 o’ Molson’s.
Things I Learned At The Gay History Walk
The Lunch Patrol
Canada’s Finest Chow Down In 101 Reykjavík
Tel +354 577 60 50
www.sixt.is
Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
website.
Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the
Icelandic Tourist Board.
List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
Agencies on:
visiticeland.com
RAGNAR JÓN HRÓLFSSON
HÖRÐUR SVEINSSON
CATHARINE FULTON
REBECCA LOUDER