Reykjavík Grapevine - aug. 2021, Síða 8

8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08— 2021
Being Nonbi-
nary: In Iceland
And Everywhere
The existence of nonbinary people is gaining
slow but steady recognition in many Euro-
centric countries—Iceland included. While
we celebrate the fact that Iceland officially
allows for a third legal gender marker—X—
and has somewhat relaxed their naming
laws, most of the challenges nonbinary
people face have more to do with the real-
ity of living in a society that only accepts a
binary view of gender.
In this feature, we spoke with three nonbi-
nary Icelanders—Ari Logn, Regn Sólmundur
Evu and Reyn Alpha Magnúsar—about their
experiences with their gender identities,
the challenges they face and what needs to
change and how.
What does ‘nonbi-
nary’ mean
anyway?
Simply put, nonbinary is an umbrella term
for a set of gender identities that do not
adhere entirely, or at all, to the binary male
and female. As it is not a “third gender” but
a category in itself, many nonbinary people
can have very divergent gender identities
from one another—agender people, bigen-
der people and fae gender people are a few
examples. Far from being a recent trend or
fad, nonbinary gender identities have existed
in many cultures around the world for mille-
nia, with examples including the ‘Yan Daudu
of sub-Saharan Africa, the Nádleehi of the
Navajo people and the Fa'afafine of Samoa,
to name just a few.
The “recentness” of nonbinary gender
identities in Europe and North America is
only relative to most Eurocentric cultures.
For many cis people in these countries, and
even for many binary trans people, nonbi-
nary people are a “new” concept that they
are just now beginning to know.
In Iceland, nonbinary people are legally
recognised, at least as far as gender mark-
ers in the National Registry are concerned.
Naming laws have also been slightly relaxed;
names are no longer relegated to only for
men or only for women, and some gender-
neutral names have made it into the lexicon.
Still, legal and societal challenges persist. In
the course of our interviews, the patterns
that emerged include the challenges of living
in a community that sees gender in purely
male or female terms, the desire to not want
to make anyone uncomfortable by simply
being yourself, the gendered nature of the
Icelandic language and the lack of repre-
sentation of or education about nonbinary
people.
Let’s talk gender
When asked what nonbinary gender identity
they abide by, Regn and Ari Logn describe
themselves as agender—that is, lacking any
gender at all—while Reyn is not entirely sure.
"I describe myself as agender,” Ari Logn
says. “I just don't feel like 'woman'; it never
fit me, it never belonged to me, in the same
way 'man' didn't either. Everyone around
me sort of linked in with 'womanhood' and
'manhood' but I just didn't. That's the only
way I can describe it. I just dress how I think
is nice and that's it. I don't feel like I have a
masculine or feminine spirit, I just… am."
I also describe myself as agender, in a way
that I don't feel a connection to womanhood
or manhood,” Regn says. “But I tried out
different gender identities that go under the
nonbinary umbrella. I had tried genderqueer,
which is itself a pretty big umbrella, but it
wasn't exactly on point. I thought I was trans
masculine for a while; like maybe a feminine
trans man or even androgynous trans man,
but that didn't fit, either. So I landed on the
agender term, but it doesn't really reach all
parts [of me]. I feel like I have a gender of
some sort, but it's just really not connected
to femininity or masculinity. It's more like
something very different. I haven't found
a term yet. The closest I got was aporagen-
der [a gender identity that is neither male,
female, nor "something in between"] But I
go with agender because people understand
it a bit more. I don't feel any connection to
traditional femininity and masculinity."
"I don't really have a specific label for my
experience of gender,” Reyn says. “I originally
landed on agender. At the time I thought I
didn't really care about gender expression
It’s time to say it loud: nonbinary
people have always existed.
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: John Pearson
(From the le$) Regn, Reyn and Ari Logn