Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2016, Page 4

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Me and my partner are currently on a
vacation in Reykjavík. It's my third time
visiting Iceland and I've always felt
comfortable and welcomed here so I am
especially astonished by a series of inci-
dents that happened to us last weekend.
I fear that there's growing homopho-
bia and xenophobia in Reykjavik that
should be brought to attention. I have
always thought highly of Iceland as one
of the most progressive and accepting
countries in the world and have never
felt unsafe and discriminated against
so I am particularly concerned and
thought of sharing my experience here.
On Saturday night, my gender non-
conforming partner, who is biologically
male, was sexually assaulted by a cis
man, who tried to grope my partner's
groin as he walked past us in downtown
Reykjavík in an extremely disrespect-
ful, teasing manner. We felt that he
was targeted because of his androgy-
nous alternative appearance—he was
wearing a pastel pink knitted hat, has
magenta dyed hair and wore eyeliner,
a look not uncommon in Berlin (where
he's from), as well as the fact that he's
a man. We thought of going to the po-
lice but my partner was afraid that he
would be discriminated against and
not taken seriously as he has had bad
experience with the police in the past.
Then the next morning, a cafeteria at
the indoor market decided that they had
ran out of waffles—on a Sunday, while
selectively delivering waffles to another
customer's table. We were also the only
foreigners in the cafe, so we felt that we
were discriminated against for that ex-
act reason. I felt it was unacceptable,
extremely xenophobic and backwards—
no customer should be treated less fa-
vorably based on their nationality, ap-
pearance, or sexual orientation, but I
fear this was the case.
– Joie
Hi Joie,
We are very sorry you had this experi-
ence. And while this does not reflect
the views of most Icelanders, unfortu-
nately there are bigoted people here
like everywhere else. We at Reykjavík
Grapevine love and celebrate people
of all genders and nationalities and
hope you don’t let some small-minded
losers ruin your otherwise great rela-
tionship with our country.
– The Grapevine

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 5 — 2016
4
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