Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.08.2012, Page 22

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2012 Hörður Torfason has a website at www.hordurtorfa.com. His
Facebook page is also regularly updated with articles and videos
from his tours at www.facebook.com/hordurtorfa.
London, and beyond. “Last June, protes-
tors in four cities—Barcelona, Palma de
Mallorca, Córdoba, and Madrid—col-
lected money, called me, and asked me
to come and tell them about what we did
here.”
In the most unlikely places, protes-
tors are reading the words and discov-
ering the life story of one of Iceland’s
modern icons. “The other day I had a
call from Panama. They’re really waking
up there, and they’ve heard all about me
online.”
When he addresses his audiences—
often crowds of hundreds at a time—he
shares the familiar tale of his fabled life:
the promising theatrical career; the no-
torious ambush which made him the
first Icelander to be outed as gay; the
years in exile; the struggles for human
rights.
And wherever he speaks, he gains a
host of new disciples. “These people all
seem to know who I am. One guy came
up to me and said, ‘There are two people
I listen to, who I read and who I believe
in: Che Guevara and Hörður Torfason.’”
But, he confides, with a self-effacing
chuckle, “I think woah! That may be tak-
ing it a bit too far.”
From the experience of his own
battles, he insists: “All change begins
with one person who simply cannot take
it anymore.” He is habitually described
as a mild-mannered, warm and person-
able gent. “I am not an angry man,” he
insists. “I got over all that years ago.”

Preaching non-violence

So it is unsurprising that he preaches
a firm philosophy of nonviolence. The
insurrection that was brewing on the
streets of downtown Reykjavík in late
2008 troubled Hörður. “People wanted
to go to the homes of the bankers, to
cause trouble, to start violence. I said no.
These are human beings; they have fam-
ilies, children and relatives. There was a
lot of anger around, but you make it of-
ficial and go to where they are working
and approach them with reason.”
“We reason and we know it takes
time,” he concedes. “We don’t kill peo-
ple; we don’t use violence; we don’t use
masks. I don’t want to live in a society
where terror reigns.”
Iceland however is a very different
nation to some of those he has visited of
late. “In our country we have the right to
protest. We are allowed to step forward
and criticise,” he says.
So it remains a cultural clash when
he visits peoples bred on civil strife and
violence. “People in South America say
to me: ‘In your so-called revolution, you
didn’t even burn one car! You call that a
revolution?’”
For all his insistence on reason and
nonviolence, Hörður nonetheless knows
the importance of holding a personal
stake in the struggle—as he did in his
early campaign for gay rights. “I made
fun of some Icelanders, dressing up
and going protesting in their best suit
to show off. Their heart was not in the
protest. Many didn’t even know what it
was about. It was just the in-thing.”

Returning to a bygone era

But what does he tell them abroad about
the Icelandic experience in recent years?
“When the crash came in Iceland,”
he says, “we weren’t surprised—but
shocked.” He paints a vivid picture of a
nation that had lost its traditional values.
“You should have been here in 2007!”
he tells me. “We had become superficial.
You walked around and met people who
were all—” (he strikes a theatrical pose;
the actor in him at last has a chance to
shine through unabashed) “‘Oh hi there!
How are you? Oh I do like your shirt. Is it
Boss?!’”
“The reason I started fighting back
in the very beginning is because I think
human values are worth more than
money.” His determination is bound-
less: “I got seriously sick after the pro-
tests. People asked me if I regretted it. I
said no—this is my vision. I can feel that
what I’ve done has mattered. We have to
stop thinking just of our little selves.”

A happy romantic sissy

“We have this word in Icelandic, Kærlei-
kur, which means love or caring. Some
people believe the world is harsh and
tough, and so you have to be harsh and
tough to beat it. But I have more belief in
love.” He goes on, “So if someone calls
me a romantic or a sissy then I say yes,
I’m a happy romantic sissy—that’s fine.”
And now it is that heartfelt conviction
which propels him wherever he goes.
His globetrotting missions he confesses
are “very demanding work.” “Massimo
came to Italy with me recently,” he con-
fides, “and told me it was unbelievable:
‘You wake up early in the morning, go
in meetings and interviews all day, three
big speeches in one day, then questions
for two hours, then you’re in the car driv-
ing to the next place. I’m tired just fol-
lowing you. How on earth are you?’ And
I say I’m fine. I’ve been doing this all my
life. My fuel is my interest in the matter,
it’s alive in me.”
He insists: “I don’t try and get into
the papers. I do my job in silence be-
cause I know the importance of it. I don’t
try to be popular, because I detest that
way of working.”
He travels with an entourage: his
driver, a trip planner, a photographer, a
translator—and a bodyguard. He recalls
quite clearly the moment during his ex-
ile in Copenhagen when an Icelandic
“homosexual hater” attempted to stab
him. “I was in a large group of people,
and suddenly I saw the f lickering of the
light on a knife close by. If I hadn’t seen
it, I would have had it straight into my
heart.”
“The people I meet love me—I know
that; I can feel that. But there’s always
that one person who has a different
opinion, so you have to always be care-
ful.”

The job is not done

But continue the fight, he most certainly
will. “After my break, my next visit will
be to France next month.” He has no
plans however to continue protesting at
home. “Many people have been calling
after me to do that. But I refuse—not for
political reasons, but because we have to
learn. We have to feel what really hap-
pened to us.” He is at his most animated
now, the closest he comes to expressing
anything that might resemble anger.
Banging his fist on the table, he insists,
“We have to suffer to understand what
happened in Iceland. People only learn
through suffering.”
The debate over the new constitu-
tion he believes is a good sign. “We are
fighting the people who have been rul-
ing Iceland, who have practically owned
Iceland, for the last sixty years or more.
We have to go through this to learn and
understand how we want our society to
work.”
He echoes Gandhi, declaring that we
have to be the change we want to see in
the world. “Life is change. We’re always
changing, so let’s do it together. I say to
people start in your own community—if
you succeed, people will listen and come
to you.”
“When I set out to do something,”
he concludes, reminiscing on his role
as the instigator of the Pots and Pans
Revolution, “I finish the job and I walk
away—I’m done.”
As the calls continue to come in from
all over the world, he shows no intention
of walking away just yet; the job is not
yet done. Hörður Torfason will not be on
vacation back home for long.
Iceland’s
Troubadour Takes
His Love Song
Around The Globe
Continued
1995: Tupilak, Swedish Gay Organization, for his
pioneering work and bravery
1995: Freedom Prize, Samtökin 78, for his
courage, bravery and honesty in the fight for
human rights
1998: Golden Needle, Samtökin 78, for his life
achievement
2008: Community Prize, Fréttablaðsins, for his
work in the fight against prejudice
2008: Man of the Year, Rás 2 Icelandic Radio
Broadcast, for his outstanding contribution in
human rights
2009: Tupilak, Swedish Gay Organization, for
his outstanding contribution to gay rights
2010: Siðmennt Award, Icelandic Human-
ists, for his outstanding contribution in human
rights
Glittering CV: The Many Accolades Of Hörður Torfason
“
You should have been
here in 2007! We had
become superficial. You
walked around and met
people who were all—
‘Oh hi there! How are
you? Oh I do like your
shirt. Is it Boss?!„
The pots and pans revolution
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Iceland | Activism